Live Review: Smash Mouth, Area 7

With more mutton chops than a rockabilly gathering at Luna Park, Area 7 certainly look the part of a '90s ska band. Ska in itself is already a divisive enough genre, but ska with an Aussie accent? Well, it's certainly what some would call "an acquired taste". With John "Stevo" Stevens unable to string together three or more words without an F-bomb or giving a shoutout to some Victorian suburb, this opener is definitely for the listeners without any sense of cultural cringe. And hey, more power to them.

Area 7 leave the stage of the packed Croxton and this reviewer gets a tiny glimpse of one woman's Facebook conversation to her friend: "WE'RE AT SMASH MOUTH AND WE'RE LITERALLY THE COOLEST PEOPLE HERE" Sorry ma'am, but no one is cool at a Smash Mouth gig.

Steve Harwell, who should really change his legal name to Smash Mouth, and the rest of the band take to the stage before a screaming crowd of shitposters and ironic Shrek fans. Opening with their rendition of Can't Get Enough Of You Baby and War's Why Can't We Be Friends? big smiles light up across the venue as we realise: "Hey, Smash Mouth are still a fun band!"

"C'mon, let's get some girls dancing up here!" yells Harwell, his eyes hidden behind a pair of big, Gucci-looking sunglasses. Several women from the crowd are brought onto the stage and boy are they lovin' it. That is, until they realise that no one is coming to tell them when to get off. About six songs later, what was once a passionate boogie from these girls has turned into a confused and sweaty sway as many of them start checking their phones in exhaustion. These brave women are finally excused as Harwell announces, "Alright give it up for the ladies!"

House lights are dimmed and the smoke machine is cranked for a lengthy version of Walkin' On The Sun, a song that sounds like it was written by The Doors on Mountain Dew. You've gotta hand it to Harwell, for a guy that gets teased about being in a holy trinity with Guy Fieri and Insane Clown Posse's Violent J, the dude is a very unique singer. With a raspy and blown-out cadence like Looney Tunes' Tasmanian Devil, his voice has undoubtedly been the key to Smash Mouth's enduring success with cover songs.

The band continue to run through their surprisingly big line-up of hits, as the incredibly relaxed Harwell saunters around the stage, having friendly, off-mic conversations with his bandmates and holding the hands of audience members crying out to be blessed by him. More dancing girls arrive on stage along with one lanky fella who looks like Kramer in the middle of Movember. The crowd go wild for Aussie Kramer who is quickly escorted off by security as soon as he begins smoking a dart on stage.

What happens next is completely predictable. Smash Mouth leave the stage and the lights go off. The crowd starts to chant "All Star! All Star! All Star!" until Smash Mouth return for their big cover of Neil Diamond's I'm A Believer and yes, All Star. It could be the nostalgia talking, but time has been pretty kind to the positive power-pop of All Star. Maybe it's the cheesy yet memorable lyrics, the funny diminished chord in the chorus or our collection association with the first Shrek film that makes this song so endearing.

As the crowd are belting every word, an incredibly short audience member covered in face tattoos puts on a Shrek mask and begins taking selfies with everyone he can while streaming the whole thing on Facebook. While taking a photo with this SoundCloud rapper in a cartoon ogre mask, it was then that this very sober reviewer began to have what drug users would refer to as "a dissociative experience".

Why am I here? Why do Smash Mouth have so many songs? Should Joe Rogan have Steve Harwell on his podcast? How will future generations understand moments like these when we're so deep under several layers of abstract irony? Is this collective sense of unspoken irony making our brains get smart while our heads get dumb? Where did Aussie Kramer go? Which Shrek film had the American Idol parody DVD extra? "And in the mornin', I'm makin' waffles!" Am I dead? And the years start comin' and they don't stop comin' and they don't stop comin' and they don't stop comin' and they don't stop comin' and they... Oh, it's time to go home.