Rose Tattoo – The Gov Friday 20 April 2018.
Words Geoff Jenke
Rose Tattoo formed in 1976 and while Angry has had over 25 previous members in the band, the one thing that he has always insisted on is that the band is 100% Aussie. Tonight, is no exception with a seasoned group of musicians supporting Angry, including former AC/DC bass player, Mark Evans, on guitar ex Skyhooks and Angels member, Bob Spencer, Dai Pritchard on slide guitar, who had spent 8 years touring with Thorpie and on drums John “Watto” Watson, ex Australian Crawl member. It was going to be an adrenalin fuelled evening.
Angry bought along Dallas Crane for the support role. Dallas Crane may well be the last of the true “Aussie Pub Rock” bands still doing the rounds. Tonight, it was pure unadulterated rock at maximum volume as they whipped through 40 minutes of songs from their career plus a bonus, in a crowd-pleasing version of AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock. At the beginning vocalist Dave Larkin informed us “You don’t want to listen to me talk…see you on the other side” and true to word one song quickly linked into another. (except for a brief moment of drummer equipment problems.) Dallas Crane need to come back for their own head lining tour.
Rose Tattoo have been revered by many great bands including Guns N Roses (who asked them to support them on their 1993 and 2007 tours), L.A. Guns and Nashville Pussy. They have played all over the world including the Download Festival in England and the Wacken Open Air Festival in Europe.
There were no surprises tonight as Rose Tattoo rolled out their well-known songs, opening with One of the Boys along with perennial favourite Juice on the Loose following. Angry trawled the stage clutching a bottle of Green Ginger Wine, frequently taking a swig out of it.
Assault and Battery, Rock N Roll Outlaw followed and the crowd became one seething group in front of the stage. “This is a Melbourne song” proclaimed Angry as the band launched into a heavy blues Eddie and the Butcher. During the song Angry went to the back of the stage and just watched the band do their thing, a big smile on his face. Angry is also proudly Australian and as it is ANZAC week, gave us the Last Post in “They shall not grow old…” The crowd fell quiet and listened.
Branded followed and then a rousing version of Black Eyed Bruiser, a song made famous by Stevie Wright. The band were tight and loud. Rock N Roll is King, Scarred for Life, Bad Boy for Love and We Can’t Be Beaten all followed one another, confirming just how good this band are, before Angry announced, “We are Rose Tattoo. We don’t do encores”. The band then launched into Nice Boys (Don’t Play RnR). All too soon it was all over.
Rose Tattoo are one of the few original Australian Pub Rock bands still doing the rounds. This tour is heading off to Europe next and already has “Sold Out” on several of the dates. Such is the power of this band in 2018. It’s a shame the new generation of millenniums will never know what pub rock was all about. They will never experience the raw energy of a real live band “going off” on a pub stage.
There was a sea of black T-shirts amongst the (mainly older) crowd. Guns N Roses, The Cult, Black Sabbath were all popular, but the prize for best T-shirt goes to the guy who had a black ABBA T-shirt on. Well done.
Long live ROCK n ROLL.
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