They were in their mid-teens when that album was put out so I thought they would be worth a try at the ripe old age of twentysomething. I was not disappointed, but the show had a twist for sure. This band took a lot of flack for being a copycat, if you will, of the post Nirvana grunge wave. Their latest CD “Young Modern” is anything but a grunge type CD for sure.

More on the techno type pop really, but sweet. Not to use a tired cliche’, but this band was nothing like their albums live! The twist I spoke of stemmed from Mr. Daniel Johns “grunging” up the songs on stage.

This dude played a mean guitar from all angles, including on his back, knees and even playing with his teeth. The maniacal, yet controlled, skin slamming of Ben Gillies was awesome. Bassist Chris Joannou kept up, too. I just could not believe how enjoyable this show was. Johns was on this night. And in control. It built from the opening cut “Young Modern” thru “Emotion Sickness” and a neat “Israel’s Son”. It is obvious that Johns is healed from the health problems he endured over the past decade or so. An eating disorder and a bout with reactive arthritis which had him bed ridden.

Australian bands rarely let me down and this night was on when I caught Johns sporting a AC/DC Bon Scott t-shirt! He rocked thru “Reflections of a Sound”, “Insomnia” and “Ana’s Song”. Drummer Gillies led the crowd in a Happy Birthday song for Johns, too which was cool. The SOLD OUT crowd was steaming by the time “Greatest View”, “Straight Lines”, “The Door” and “Mind Reader” rolled thru the hot house this night. The songs-especially the back and forth “If You Keep Losing Sleep”-often cut all over the place a bit, but not in a bad way. The worn out crowd got ’em back for “Freak” and the evening came to a close. These guys did well, but I cannot believe they did not do “Tomorrow”, their only Top 40 single. Like I said, the soaring grunge effect of the band was appealing to me-and a legion of loyal fans.

To not do it seemed odd to this reviewer. Especially since Johns has been on record as saying how the band has loyal fans from their breakthrough years and they were unwilling to part with the past. Oh well. Overall for a “school night”, it was a damn good time…The opening band, “The Vanishing” out of Dallas was loud and hard thump rock. Other than a good cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”, they did little for me. High on enthusiam, but not my cup of tea……………Out ’till next time. Peace.