Live Review: Tex, Don & Charlie, The Ahern Brothers

There was an intimate atmosphere as the crowd waited for the gig to start at Badlands. The venue was jokingly referred to as the 'Volcano Room' by support act The Ahern Brothers and it was hard to disagree with them, the man-made stalactites never fail to make an impression.

The gig was a pleasing mixture of folk, country, blues and anything in between. Kicking off the night with sweet harmonies, the brothers had an impressively gelled stage presence. They filled the room with crisp finger-picked chords and hit that sweet spot where the best qualities of folk and country music intermix - even The Louvin Brothers would have been proud.

When Tex, Don & Charlie emerged onto the stage, there was wild applause and the crowd immediately grew closer. In defiance to the washed-out rock-star stereotype, the trio proved they still had it in spades. Tex Perkins' and Don Walker's vocals may have wavered with age, but the charisma, humour and camaraderie between the three were what really sold it.

Perkins played the unwitting joker as he wheeled around the vocalist's chair, Charlie Owen was silent and sensible on the guitar and Walker often reciprocated Perkins' humour on the keys. It felt like watching three good friends doing a Sunday pub gig - with adulation from the middle-aged punters shouting "love ya Charlie/Don/Tex" really topping it off.

But the light-heartedness didn't damper their musical abilities. At times the music was dark and brooding; Perkins and Walker painting livid lyrical pictures of revenge, drinking and heartbreak. Semi-autobiographical or not, the musical marriage between Perkins, Walker and Owen is enough to punch even the uninitiated in the gut.

They wrapped up with Plan B and Postcard From Elvis, the crowd awash in old school rock and roll - and leaving convinced Tex, Don & Charlie won't lose 'it' anytime soon.