The Monarchs
Del Emmas
City Lights
@ the Annandale Hotel,
Thursday, December 20, 2000
It occurs to me that in the past my praise of the Monarchs generally has not been as uninhibited as the Barman's. I will confess that even though the band has always gone in hard, gone in early and gone in often (to borrow from commentating legend H.G. Nelson), there had always been a lingering splinter of doubt in my mind regarding the band's true gravitas.
This is now no longer the case. While there was no specific road to Damascus moment of enlightenment for me during this show, I nevertheless came away a true believer at last. Looking back on the shows I saw during 2001, I'm not sure why it took me so long. The setlist for this show was almost identical to the previous Annandale show (though this time with the inclusion of a cover of Spirit's "I Got A Line On You", which I hadn't heard them do before). There was no discernable lack of energy or commitment at that earlier show, but somehow the whole thing didn't fall completely into place for me then. Boy, it sure has now though.
The
Monarchs, for their part, seemed entirely relaxed as they stepped onto the stage.
No matching military-style shirts this time, just casual day wear (though bassist
Andy Kelly's matching red shirt and trousers did look alarmingly like a jumpsuit
if you stood back any distance from the stage). Entering into the spirit of
Christmas, the roadies had festooned the drum kit with tinsel and wrapped the
band's guitars in festive paper, placing them in front of the amps like presents
provided by a particularly generous Santa (presumably the absence of near neighbours
at the north pole means there are never any annoying noise complaints to have
to worry about up there).
After a little wide-eyed Christmas morning present unwrapping, "day" soon turned back to evening with Brother Brad calling both the faithful and the resolutely unredeemed to late night communion in usual righteous fashion, before leading the ensemble into a take no prisoners rendition of "Give It Up For The Band". From that moment on there was no looking back until the encore. Having gotten their Christmas presents, they then gave us our Christmas present - an aural Christmas feast that beats as it sweeps as it cleanses the soul and washes away sins (absolutely no Christmas turkeys in this band, to further mangle the metaphor and leave it doubled up, clutching its guts and gasping for air down on the floor amongst the beer stains and cigarette butts).
The encores for this evening did however acknowledge the passing during the year of two real rock luminaries: George Harrison so recently and Joey Ramone earlier in the year. Dying within six months of each other, aged 58 and 49, it's seems strange to me now to realise as I type this that they'd been born less than a decade apart - there had always seemed to be such a generational gap between them. Regardless, the Monarchs saw them off properly with covers of "Something" and "Commando" respectively (and respectfully).
Of
course it wouldn't be a Monarchs' show without at least one heckler. That seems
to be the tradition that's developing in any case. This time it was a fairly
drunk woman who started off complaining about the volume (at any rate I think
it was the volume she was complaining about - they were so loud at that point
that it was a little hard to make out for certain what she was rantting about...),
but then she changed her gripe to a more general allegation of "you're
shithouse", before turning and aggressively elbowing a path away from the
stage; making her way towards the rear of the room like an explorer macheteing
though thick jungle. "That's the last time I put you on the guest list
Mum", Brad announced to her retreating back, with a slightly theatrical
mixture of dejection and confused annoyance in his voice. Well, it amused the
rest of us anyway.
Whatever her problem was, I strongly suspect she'd brought it with her to the venue that evening and doubtless took it home with her again when she left. Everybody else seemed to be enjoying the show. Other bands on the bill were the Del Emmas, playing another assured set, and the new (well to me anyway) band City Lights, who pulsated solidly in the Oz Rock tradition. However, it was definitely the Monarchs' night. - John McPharlin
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