Australian punk veterans Bodyjar who are one of the most revered punk bands that Australia has ever produced, are opening the show tonight at The Metro. Even though they played Unified this year and did a brief stint of shows a few years back, I haven’t seen them since the early 2000’s and this is a band I would see every festival. I went to every show they played, so to say I am super keen to see them tonight is an understatement. It seems I am not the only one, the whole Metro is looking pretty darn full on this Wednesday night and all with people I swear I would see at the gigs way back in the 90’s. Wait, there is a bloke wearing a tour shirt for the band from Homebake, Wow!
Opening things up straight away with an early classic Another Minute, Bodyjar waste no time up there on stage just ripping through the tracks. It isn’t long and they play the classic cover of Simon And Garfunkel’s Hazy Shade of Winter. Hearing all these tracks live again just made me, and everyone else, appreciate what this band has given us. Perhaps one person in the metro tonight got to show his love more than anyone and that someone was Less Than Jake bassist Roger Lima, who not only sang on Not the Same but ran out at the end of the set and stole the set list and gave the audience the bird, lol. Wow, he really loved this band, but seriously it’s not hard to see why tracks like You Say still sound just as great now as they did back then. I can safely say no mosh pit got going tonight but everyone was paying real close attention and enjoying themselves beyond belief on stage and off, with the release of a new Ep Tera Firma, I for one hope to see more of Bodyjar real soon.
Less Than Jake hit the stage to the same full house that was earlier watching Bodyjar, this five-piece insatiably get us moving with All My Best Friends Are Metal Heads. There is just something about a ska bad that you cannot help but get yourself moving to, the infections horn section mixed in with the punk rock guitar work just makes you want to move and move we did. They waste no time in saying that this is the last night of the tour and most likely the one they will remember and to open up a circle pit, and we did and it stayed open all set. Up on stage frontman Chris Demakes would make jokes and banter all set long including, why is it only in Australia I see the biggest lit up sign for a bar I have ever seen worldwide, like don’t Aussies know where the nearest bar is from birth lol. They pulled on stage an extremely inebriated Canadian who stripped down bare and did his best hip-hop moves for us as the Less the Jake Mascot shot toilet paper out of a gun made especially for shooting toilet paper into the crowd. It was really something you had to see but also wish you hadn’t seen, at the same time, lol.
With a history over 20 years long making records and touring the world, it is no great surprise tonight’s show was awesome. Everyone in the place was just on their feet moving and swaying, those down the front kept the circle pit going and patrons would even crowd surf. The humour made for some great moments and musical tracks like Dopeman, Plastic Cups Politics and The Science of Selling Yourself Short, all sounded fantastic.
The encore began as things started with the horn section showing us how it is done and you really must hand it to the band tonight, on the last night of the tour, I feel as though they saved the best for last and the whole place was bouncing up and down and everyone in the Metro showed why the old-school bands are still relevant today, and they really know how to give us a good time.
Review – Chad
Photo gallery – Christian Ross