Live Review: The Delta Riggs, Gideon Bensen, The Cherry Dolls

The Cherry Dolls' face-melting mouth organ solo draws the leather-jacket-flannel-shirt wearing audience front and centre. "I know you didn't just come here at 8pm to stand here. Can you shake your hips with me?" Joshua Aubry says, as the band transition into a mellow groove before the booming drums lead into a wonderfully loud guitar solo that leaves our ears ringing with pleasure. Their intensity onstage remains consistent for the entirety of their set and - as Aubry holds the microphone cord and flings it into the air - the band finish in a vocal and reverb-drenched frenzy.

Accompanied by his band, consisting of a drummer and bassist, Gideon Bensen quickly tears the crowd away from the bar for round two. Small (in numbers) as they seem, Bensen and his band are definitely not lacking in sound quality. Their size is no reflection of the blaring bass in Cold Cold Heart, which spills into every inch of the room.

Cue mouth organ solo number two for tonight and The Delta Riggs kick it off in full force with Surgery Of Love. This band has it all. Not only are they super-entertaining, but also their skill as individual musicians is hard to fault. As each band member grooves along, they embellish track after track with perfectly timed guitar fills and effortless backing vocals, all done while looking insanely relaxed. 

As soon as the first chord of Supersonic Casualties rings out, the crowd erupts. The track sounds even tighter performed live. Hands are in the air, eyes are closed as the crowd absolutely blisses out for a few minutes before jumping straight into Never Seen This Before's funk groove. This brings out the best audience participation of the night as we scream the chorus as instructed by frontman/microphone twirler extraordinaire, Elliott Hammond.

"We were in Canberra last night and there were about 145 of them and they were louder than you," yells Hammond. Determined to outdo Canberra, the audience's intensity is amplified, especially after Hammond follows up with the comment, "I think you should be excited to see the greatest fuckin' rock'n'roll export of the last decade!" The wafting weed scent gets stronger, the noise gets louder and the dance moves get looser. The Delta Riggs tick all the boxes. They're skilled musicians with 100% commitment to their onstage energy, decadent guitar licks, fierce vocals and (most important of all) mouth organ solos. What more could you want?