Despite the early start, smallish crowd and having to back up from a cracking show the night before, The Living End were superb, delivering a blistering 90 minute set of some of the best hard rockin’ tunes going around. Further proving why they are regarded as one of the best live acts to come out of Australia.
The show kicked off at 4:30pm when Sydney based, The Red Riders took the stage. Although they only played a short 30 minute set they did enough to prove their spot on the bill and to suggest they could have a pretty bright future.
Next up was the better known End of Fashion, who have made a pretty big name for themselves over the past year with the release of their brilliant self titled debut album and a hand full of catchy singles. Every time I see these guys, they get better and better and today was no exception their sound is extremely tight and mixed to perfection. It wont be long before End of Fashion are headlining similarly sized shows to this one but, today their job was to get the crowd warmed up and finishing their set with their 3 big singles ‘She’s Love’, ‘O Yeah’ and ‘The Game’ meant that the crowd was pumped up and ready to go.
Then it was time for the main event. The small yet vocal crowd gathered around and the chant went up for The Living End. The Melbourne based 3-piece were met with an almighty cheer and from the first note of ‘’Til The End’ to the final chorus of ‘West End Riot’ had the crowd singing, dancing and screaming for more.
The Trio were on stage for about 90 mins and played hits from all their albums. Crowd favourites included ‘Who’s Gonna Save Us’, ‘What’s On Your Radio’, ‘All Torn Down’ and ‘Second Solution’, although my highlight was the medley they played comprising of several songs off their first 2 EP’s Hellbound (‘94) and It’s For Your Own Good (‘96). Other highlights included their classic punk cover of ‘Tainted Love’ and a jam session that started with the cover of ‘Mr Sandman’ and finished with Chris Cheney’s signature use of a stubby to play slide guitar before sculling the left over beer. If Chris isn’t the best guitarist in Australia, I don’t know who is!!
The band closed the main set with the crowd favourite and teen punk anthem ‘Prisoner Of Society’ which had the crowd chanting for more. The crowd wasn’t disappointed as the boys came back out to play a 4 song encore including, a request for, the rarely played ‘Dirty Man’, sing-a-long favourite ‘Uncle Harry’, ‘Wake Up’ and the night was finished with regular closer ‘West End Riot’.
As the lights came on there wasn’t an unsatisfied punter in sight. How could they be, they’d just witnessed the best rock act Australia has to offer.
The Living End Photo Gallery
