Review and gallery: James Garrahy
With each passing year, there seems to be more and more Anniversary tours for the albums that heavily shaped my musical tastes and those awkward teenage years. We were young, filled with angst and there were more hormones coursing through our veins than fish in the sea. Confused, isolated (figuratively) and trying to figure out life, it was a time of our lives rife with mixed emotions, but we had music, oh how we had music, and that music anchored us to this mortal plane and gave us something to be passionate about.
When I was a wee lad, growing up in the Gold Coast Hinterland, all my friends being located in suburbia, I was semi-isolated from the pack. It was a great place to grow up, but I was often left out of the loop with growing trends. But the two things I did have, were music and surfing and how these passions intertwined themselves was a thing of pure beauty.
After a surfing expedition with my pack of little angst ridden teens, we would return to a mates place where we would sit down to watch the most recent acquisition of a bodyboarding video that someone had been gifted, lent, or bought with our own hard earned money from pushing trolleys at the local Bi-Lo (look it up kids, it wasn’t always Coles, Woolies or Aldi).
One day, my mate Nate would bestow upon us Propaganda (it’s on YouTube, look it up), here was a video that opened my eyes to a whole new world of punk rock, having previously been influenced by my cousins tastes such as Celebate Rifles, TSOL and The Hard-Ons. Like I said, our music was better than yours, oh faithful reader. THIS is where I found bands like Strung Out, Pridebowl and Millencolin, but one band on this video stood out above all the rest, Lagwagon. And tonight, I get to see the boys from Goleta, California, play their album Hoss from front to back.
Rolling into Miami Marketta, the air is thick with anticipation for the upcoming feast for the senses (but not before hitting the local paella vendor for my guilty pleasure when I have the chance to get to this amazing venue). Kicking off the night is our southeast Queensland heroes Fake News. I honestly have no bad things to say about this band, they renewed my love of Cali punk and they’re from my hometown.
It’s a double threat. Now, I never got to see Fake News 2.0 with Watto on the strings, but from what I hear, he did great things with his time in the band. Tonight however, Mick is back on duty and man does he fucking shred. Some of the best punk rock jumps are executed by this legend, and he NEVER skips a note. Coupling this with the big man Darren, and you have a recipe for some of the best punk riffs in all the land.
Front man Tim is absolutely smashing it tonight and his chemistry and playfulness with bassist Nick is incredible. With the two constantly feeding off each other’s energy, its certainly adding massive amounts of positivity to the overall vibe of the night. Nat’s smashing of the skins tonight is incredible, from the paradiddle intro of Face Of Death, all the way through to the massive finale of Broken Bones, he never misses a beat and does it all with a smile on his face.
This band has come up in the scene in leaps and bounds in recent years, just take a look at the bands they’ve supported. If you haven’t seen the brilliance that is Fake News live, then you’re missing out on some of the most authentic punk tunes, executed by easily the nicest people in the business. Onwards and upwards fellas, you’re doing the Goldy proud.
The lights come down and the theme song of Bonanza rings through the PA. It is time. As our Californian friends grace the stage, there is of course one Mr Chris Flippin missing, but in his place is our very own Lindsay McDougall, just what the doctor ordered……The Doctor (shit joke, I know, I’ll give myself a Punch In The Face later (last one, I promise)) . We miss you Flip, you giant bastard, but we know that if you could be here, you would.
As Mr Cape tells us, we’re in for a night of bass solos as Lil Joe hits off with the into to The Kids Don’t Like To Share. Now, you know me, if the music captures me, I dance like a fool in the photo pit and I’m sure it’s truly a sight to behold, with all six foot five of me thrashing like a newborn giraffe fresh from the womb. As we smash straight into Violins, I am already awash with sweat, and I cannot stop singing along to every single word.
Like I said previously, there’s albums that shape your life and Hoss was damn high on that list. Grinding through the set to play the whole of this iconic album, we hit that middle part of the set that’s the old one-two of Sick and Rifle. NOTHING compares to seeing the latter in a live setting and it’s with this song that we hear Joey open his vocal chords and really give it all his got with the chorus of “Rifle, Rifle, Rifle Me!!” purely showcasing that signature gravelly voice that was so prominent in all our childhoods and remains there to this day.
We get through an entire album with one of the greatest sing-a-longs I’ve been witness to in recent years as Razor Burn smashes through the PA and leaves us unable to control the amount we scream the lyrics back to the band, if Joey wanted a break from duties, I’m sure we could’ve carried the tune for him. But alas, our front man has this covered, and we move onto some of the choice cuts from their illustrious nearly 40-year career.
Giving us an extra tasty morsel of Agent Orange’s, Everything Turns Grey (with a stellar story of why the band loves this song), as well as selections from Double Plaidinum, Duh, Thrashed and Blaze, this setlist has left a lot of die-hard Wagon fans happy and finishing off with May 16 just feels more than right.
Moving out of the confines of Miami Marketta, the food vendors have all shut up shop, but we’re all hungry for more (whether that’s in the form of food to refuel or more tunes, that’s your call), all I know is my soul is full and Hoss will be cranked to full volume for the full drive home. Leaving me with a sense of great satisfaction in seeing this phenomenal album in its entirety, it will continue to solidify its spot as one of my top 5 albums of all time. Until next time and sing it with me, “all aboard the Lagwagon!”
– GALLERY –
