It had been just over a week since troublesome Georgian quartet Black Lips last played in Sydney, going around the country on the Laneway Festival tour. Definitely a long enough gap to let the dust settle in between Sydney shows. Appearing alongside them tonight were Royal Headache and The Twerps. 

Unfortunately, however, I arrived just as Royal Headache were packing up their gear. After the first ow two generous thirty minute waits, the first band on my reduced line up was The Twerps, who make quite lovely pop songs, with just the right amount of fuzz. Marty Frawley situated between two microphones - the first cleaner and the second reverb and delay soaked - perfectly applied the washed vocals at the end of phrases. The Twerps have very laid back feel songs that are great to relax over. With many of their songs have a catchy element and less emphasis being placed into general musical exuberance. Compared to the raucous antics the Black Lips are well renowned for, The Twerps were clearly the calm before the Atlanta storm. 

Once again the wait was long but everyone in the crowd was preparing for the storm to arrive. Tonight’s headliners very modest in personnel preparing many of their pedals and so forth themselves. Walking out calmly much to the waiting crowd adulation to set up and shake hands with people waiting along the barrier. One by one beginning with drummer Joe Bradley setting up his drums, followed out by Cole Alexander sporting attire that made him look like someone pulled from working on the train tracks back in the days of steam engine trains. Ian Saint Pé was next setting up pedals and last to arrive to purely tune his bass was Jared Swilley.

Manning Bar remained quite empty up until this point with the majority of the attendees outside on the balcony. After a short period of more waiting and Cole Alexander walking out on his own, much to his surprise. After rounding up the rest of the band the calm before the storm had well and truly ended as the Black Lips launched into their first song the crowd erupted into surge of pushing and pulling. It goes without saying the antics the band is notorious for particularly in India took place this evening.

The set was jam packed with rocking and rolling in particular from Cole Alexander, occasionally entering forward rolls while simultaneously playing guitar not missing a beat. Only one vomit made its appearance also which was barely recognisable amongst all the spitting he did. Oh and the occasional saliva swap with other guitarist Ian Saint Pé. Not only saliva exchanges but spitting in the air and catching it showing his true skill in the bodily fluid department.

Saint Pé slightly more reserved than the other two bar several attempts to spit in the lenses of the cameras filming the performance. In another instance of madness and pure frustration at untangling himself from his microphone stand threw the microphone and stand into the sidewalls of the stage, just as the stagehand had arrived. The look of sincere regret and apology took over his face, potentially marking the funniest part of the night

The crowd playing up as one with the Black Lips orchestrators of mayhem. A member of the audience asking Jared Swilley if he could come on stage with bass player replying “You can do whatever you want.” Needless to say it set the precedence for a few successful and a lot more unsuccessful stage dives with security deciding to perch on the monitors along the front row of the stage. On a few occasions Swilley found it unreasonable and found it necessary to edge closer and closer to security with his bass while playing, much to the crowds amusement. On the other hand Swilley also took the effort to attempt his shoulder walk amongst the crowd which didn’t pull off as good as many of the pictures ive seen but did make it back to the stage in once piece. It seemed the show was over after many beers a few beers given out to the audience via Saint Pé, smiling with his bottom teeth grills demanding, “Share it! One sip each!” Bows and curtsies took place and the band disappeared high fiving all within reach.

From memory the songs played include ‘O Katrina’, ‘Lock and Key’, ‘Off the Block’,  ‘Bad Kids’, ‘Cold Hands’, ‘It Feels Alright’  from ‘Good Bad Not Evil’. From 200 Million Thousand which I am less familiar with ‘Drugs’ and ‘Short Fuse’. Older track ‘Hippie, Hippie, Horrah’ and ’Dirty Hands’ from their 2005 album ‘Let It Bloom’.

After much loud applause the band returned for a somewhat unscheduled encore after leaving the stage in a little bit of a mess playing a couple of songs before announcing “We have one more song, it’s was first rock and roll song written” the band broke into a cover of ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ originally by Chuck Berry and before anyone knew what hit, everyone was heading to the exit of Manning bar escaping the eye of the Black Lips storm. It would be safe to say that the band is not technical or virtuosic by any stretch of the imagination, but they can write a hell of a catchy tune and are even better performers.

Additional Comments from Larry Heath 

I can't go without mentioning Sydney band Royal Headache, who opened the night. It's fair to say that the band are about as far from a headache as you can get, and come to represent a more polished version of the current forces within the Sydney underground scene. 

Quality acts like Warhorse, The Laurels and The Holy Soul have made a name for themselves with their dirty rock and roll, which requires a lack of polish to achieve. Royal Headache have definitely come born of the same calibre, but stand out as a force unto themselves, producing rock tracks that will sound as good on record as they do live. While this doesn't diminish the quality of the former, it does say a lot about the quality of the latter. "Eloise" was a particular stand out track, and I highly recommend this new force of the Sydney scene.

SECOND TAKE! by Nathan Roche

On Monday the 8th of January the Manning Bar once again transformed into a haven for garage rock lovers. Who better to kick off the night than Sydney’s favourite sons Royal Headache – who as usual ripped through their set of swift punk and soul tunes. After getting the side stage at the Flip Out festival last year at the Manning Bar, it was great to see lead singer Shogun having the freedom to leap around the main area like a bouncing jester. After their energetic set followed an exciting Melbourne band called The Twerps – no strangers to Sydney the band were joined by Dion Nania from Panel Of Judges who is now a full-time member of the band. (Once again proving the incestuous Melbourne Music scene is still interweaving more than ever).

The group play summer music that you can ballroom dance to and lead singer/guitarist Marty and his presence and stage antics made the music all the more enjoyable. They along with other closely affiliated Melbourne band Dick Diver have both released 7 inches through Chapter Music. The room was reaching capacity by the time The Twerps had finished and within half an hour The Black Lips had taken the stage. Often notorious for their disgusting onstage antics tonight the band just simply rocked the set, which got the whole venue jumping. Crowd surfing, spitting, fists in the air, beer and abuse are all requirements for a great punk concert – and this show was no exception. I spoke to guitarist Cole Alexander before the show and he said the band had been drinking all day and celebrating the New Orleans Superbowl win. He said because of his hometown win that there was no doubt in his mind the victory would reflect on tonight’s performance.

The band had nothing but praise for their Australia-wide Laneway shows and they were sad to depart the following day for a string of concerts in Japan for the first time. Selecting songs from the majority of their albums like “Good Bad Not Evil” and “200 million thousand”, from memory I think the set hit a high note about the third song in when they burst into 2007 hit single “O Katrina”. It all suddenly went up hill from that point so much so that at the end three encores were played to a highly demanding audience of fans. When I left the venue completely drenched in sweat along with a horde of other dehydrated fans. I realised that the most rewarding gigs are the ones where you get your head kicked in and thoroughly enjoy it. The Black Lips provided that experience yet again.

Photo by Larry Heath and his friend, the iPhone.