JOHNNY CASINO'S EASY ACTION
+ THE HIGH SOCIETY
+ THE BOOBY TRAPS
+ THE VULTURES
The Empire Hotel, Annandale
Saturday, March 19 2005

By RICHARD SHARMAN

The Empire had started to fill when the first band of the night, The Vultures, took to the stage – a Sydney three piece comprising of Josh Pincock handling guitar and vocal duties, Sam Pincock on drums and the lovely Amelia Reid on bass. They kicked the night off in fine style, playing loud dirty rock that was hard to pin down for reference points – I could see influences from the Birthday Party, a bit of stoner rock, a dash of metal and when they slowed it down a little a groove reminiscent of the mighty feedtime. A fine way to kick off the evening – The Vultures are recording shortly – keep your eyes and ears out for them.

Next up were the Booby Traps, a '60S/garage-inspired mainly female band – lots of catchy guitar rock here- always good fun. I have had the pleasure of seeing the Booby Traps several times, tonight they sounded better than ever – lots of fun. They are also about to embark on some recording.

By the time the High Society bounced onto the stage, a good crowd had built up. The High Society are a loud dirty three piece featuring Levi handling guitar and vox, his brother Aaron thumping the skins and Mark “The Lord of Love” on bass.

The High Society play good hard rocking tunes based on melodic riffs and vocal delivery reminiscent of Johnny Thunders. They are tight and get into the swing of things, jumping around and having a heap of fun on stage – while not familiar with their songs, they included a cover of the Birdman classic Breaks my Heart mid set. Good fun rock!

Now onto the main event!

Originally formed in Philadelphia “Hostile City USA” Johnny Casino’s Easy Action features the Australian contingent of Johnny Casino on guitar and his brother Graham Deluxe (both Asteroid B612), and the Americans, The Cosmic Commander on vocals and maracas, John “The Kid” Alesco on drums, Steve McCarthy on bass and Kevin McCarthy (both from Limecell) – this line-up was joined by Kent Steedman from the Celibate Rifles on rhythm guitar as a special guest.

The band launched into their set with gusto opening up with a song I’m not familiar with – what was apparent from the get go was the awesome sound coming from Johnny Casino’s guitar – it was loud, ballsy and totally mind blowing. Second song was old familiar territory – the Easy Action tore into the Flaming Groovies’ "Teenage Head" and set the Empire alight.

The band were tight, melodic and the shared vocal delivery between the Cosmic Commander and Graham Deluxe worked a treat. However, the highlight of the night was the guitar interplay between Johnny and Kent – Johnny is definitely the leader of this band, it’s not often you see Kent being blown off the stage, however, in a few songs there was some fine duelling between Johnny’s Chuck Berry on a cocktail of steroids and speed style and Kent’s wah-wah magic.

The rest of the set comprised of songs from the current Easy Action album – standouts were "Roy the Boy", "Expressway to Your Heart" and "She’s Got My Lovin’ ".

The main set closed with a turbocharged version of the Easybeats' classic "Sorry" – the Easy Action were joined by Billy Gibson on vocals for this – and it brought the house down.

Unfortunately, time constraints allowed for only one encore – but what an encore – the Easy Action’s take on the MC5 classic "Black to Comm" – delivered with intensity and culminating in Johnny ripping out his guitar strings before leaving the stage to a wall of feedback.

This was one of the finest, maximum rock and roll bands I have seen in a very long time – I’m sure those in attendance will remember this one for many years to come.


5 Beers with chasers!

 

 

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