The D4 with the Forty-Fives at the Horseshoe, January 31. Tickets: $12. Attendance: 275. Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Only a few short years ago I was praying to the rock gods and wishing on every star for a rock ‘n’ roll revival. In hindsight, I wonder if I shouldn’t have been more specific. The indie/ garage rock revival tsunami began as a nice refreshing wave but has now begun to come crashing down. No doubt we’re far from seeing the end of it.
Sure, it was great. Wild, loud and nostalgic. A good old back-to-basics rock ‘n’ roll adrenaline rush. But now that the industry has caught on, we have to face the fact that this genre is terribly limited and most of the tunes you hear sound exactly the same. No, you are not taking crazy pills.
Friday night at the Horseshoe, the Forty-Fives, opening for New Zealand-bred D4, managed to inject authentic style and diversity into their rock.
Harking back to the 60s and the Sonics, these boys, thankfully, have not shunned melody. (Why are so many doing that these days? What did melody ever do to them?) And it’s hard to keep your eyes off keyboard player Trey Tidwell, who displays an almost epileptic ecstasy whilst pounding his organ. Now, here’s a man who loves his rock ‘n’ roll.
The D4, however, do not march convincingly under the banner of Rock ‘n’ Roll Mother Fuckerism they so blatantly hold aloft. About three tunes into their set it became impossible to tell one song from another. The people who’ve been comparing these guys to AC/DC and Motörhead are obviously huffing Pam.
At no point was there a moment when I was even remotely reminded of Brian, Bonn, Angus, Lemmy, Mickey or the rest.
There was plenty of riding the same chords and plenty of feedback. It does make you wanna play air drums and jump around, but after that I couldn’t have named a tune or sung it for you if you’d held a gun to my head.
When the set ended, singer Jimmy puked all over the stage. Then, during an encore that people weren’t begging for, the audience finally did go all nuts and deliver the highest energy point of the evening.
