Live Review: The Living End, West Thebarton

It’s crazy to think that this writer first saw The Living End support Green Day in this same venue back in 1995. This was well before breakthrough track Prisoner Of Society even existed. Like their American punk buddies, they were brats back then, full of youthful bravado – running around the stage, jumping off the drum riser, and even spitting. Fast forward some 23 years to tonight and the spitting has thankfully stopped but the energy was still there. They were on their umpteenth tour of Adelaide with their eighth album, Wunderbar, in tow. Recorded in Germany (the title gives that away quite obviously. Translation = wonderful, don’t even need Google to help us), it’s a return to form after a couple of subpar albums and the new songs slotted in nicely with the older, better-known tracks.

But before The Living End lads hit the stage, locals West Thebarton warmed up the sold-out crowd. The seven-piece band – including four on guitar! – hot off winning four huge awards at Thursday night's SAMA Awards have been gaining a lot of attention of late, and rightly so. They have the songs and energy to back all this attention up. With only one album in their repertoire, Different Beings Being Different, the crowd lapped up every second of it. It’s not hard to see why when singer Ray Dalfsen has that much energy - the crowd were drawn in whether they liked it or not. Gang Of Youths and Violent Soho better watch their backs because West Thebarton are hot on their heels as Australia’s next best guitar band!

Time for The Living End! They exploded straight into Wake Up The Vampires and its on! The crowd was already jumping, having been nicely warmed up courtesy of West Thebarton. Without missing a beat, they got straight into Don’t Lose It, also off the new album. For a band with all three members in their 40s, they were looking and sounding sharp. Chris Cheney has the fastest fingers in the world, playing licks as if his life depended on it. Scott Owen dragged his double bass around the stage, treating it with equal parts love and disrespect. Andy Strachan may not have been front and centre but commanded attention by pounding those drums harder than The Who’s Keith Moon.

They continued to burn through their vast catalogue with a couple tracks from their first two albums, Bloody Mary off their self-titled debut from 1998 and Roll On off the 2000 album of the same name, which kept the older fans happy. Watching them you realise how many great songs they actually have - it was hit after hit and we were only a handful of songs in. Live, the band are a different beast. The songs, even their lesser known ones, sound better live as the band play them with such ferocious passion. The energy levels just seemed to keep rising, the band giving back what the crowd was giving them; exactly what you need at a Living End gig.

A smattering of Wunderbar tracks mainly made up the middle of the set. While these tracks are relatively new, the crowd got right into them, with many singing the words back. Not bad as the album was only released into the aether a couple of weeks ago. But it was the well-known tracks that got the biggest reaction, especially when they pulled out All Torn Down. To say the crowd went absolutely bonkers would be a massive understatement! The crowd were all too happy to shout the lyrics “You’ve got no reason!” back at the band.

The band were talkative throughout the set, taking time to reminisce. Owen shared the time they supported Green Day and his bass was split in two by their drummer, Tre Cool, closing with the punchline, “That’s why you call it a double bass.” Ba-dum tish! Also, Strachan, who is originally from Adelaide, recalled the time he saw the Hoodoo Gurus and Redd Kross some 25 years ago in this exact venue.

The first set came to a huge end with four massive hits; Second Solution, One Said To The Other, White Noise and the big one, Prisoner Of Society. What more could the band bring to the table?!

After some foot stomping from the crowd during the encore break, Cheney returned for a solo performance of latest single Amsterdam - a raw, bare-bones track that was enjoyed by the crowd even though you knew they wanted a track to jump to. The crowd seemed a bit baffled by the next song, The Room, the last track off the Modern Artillery album, as it’s a slow builder and relatively unknown. The energy levels completely dropped. But all was forgiven when Uncle Harry provided the perfect finisher to this two-hour, 22-track show. They might be almost 25 years into their career, but they still know how to put on an energetic and entertaining rock show!