THE BARMAN COMMENTS:

Nights like this remind you just how great a band like the Celibate Rifles are, how little the lack of recent success matters to them and how lucky we are to have them. From go to whoa, it was an exercise in high-velocity guitar rock of the most lethal kind, interspersed by witty repartee and apparent nonchalance, dirty and Detroit in its sonic origins but as dry as an outback creek bed in its delivery.

Nights like this also remind you what a much-improved venue Bar Broadway is now they've moved the stage back to where it originally was. It must be a nightmare to mix sound here with a miminal crowd in attendance - all those polished floorboards and glass makes it a "live" room Damien Lovelock takes time to tell us we won't stick to the carpet - but thankfully there's a three-quarter full-house in evidence. The excellent sightlines and easy bar access make this one of the best places in Sydney to catch a band.

The crunching riffage of "Spirits" opens the set and sets the agenda for the rest of the evening: Up-tempo and not a little eclectic. Although the band has a new CD on the shelves (the stunningly broad-ranging but focussed "A Mid Stream of Consciousness"), it doesn't dominate the playlist with (by my count) only five tunes making the cut: "Hammer", Wake Up". "Trippin' at the Mall", "I Shoulda" and ""Paddo Sharps".

In fact, the Cellies reach right into to the reaches of their back catalogue for some of the material. From "Sideroxlyn", their debut album, they dust off "Back on the Corner" (a song that's rendered with crystal clear guitar figures and resonant street-smart sentiments, and go back even further for "Tubular Greens" (from the "But Jacques, the Fish" EP).
The semi-acoustic songs are largely cast off (with even "Child of Mine" not making it), though "Wild Desire" bobs up, by way of a breather. There's a mesmerising version of "Cycle" and an "Electravision Mantra" that's harder than Chinese arithmetic as Kent Steedman and Dave Morris get down and riff away.

Morris and the rhythm boys (Jim Leone and Nik Rieth) lay down as thick a sonic foundation as you could wish for, in order for Steedman to set off fireworks. And he does, barefoot and in lycra camo tights, as he throws himself into his work and rips out some stunning sounds, reeling off one particularly memorable moment in "Johnny".

Damien Lovelock is as energised as I've ever seen him, wired single leg movements giving way to frenzied dancing at various stages. His patter is right up there, too, from baiting Dave Morris (who, in turn, breaks up laughing at one of Kent's technical dilemmas) to plugging the merchandfise ("10 bucks will get ya a ride home") and swapping quips with the punters. Even so, best line of the evening belongs to Kent when a front-row patron offers that he's been to 97 Rifles shows, only to attract the rejoner that the band have "been to heaps more than that, mate".
And one further observation: I'll be buggered if Nik Rieth isn't the best drummer going around.

A punter-assisted "Back in the Red" closes the show proper, before we're treated to two encores of five songs in total. There's a DAT recorder and some audience microphones in situ, so with any luck this show, or others form the tour, will be released.

It wouldn't be a Rifles show without the odd dubious cover: tonight pole position goes to "I Can't Get Enough of Your Love" (and Bad Company never sounded so good), while the encore closer - some 95 minutes after the set's start - is a surprisingly faithful (sans keyboards) take on Devo's "Girl U Want".

Catch a show this tour. You'll be sorry if you don't.
- The Barman

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McPHARLIN'S TAKE:

Tonight's habitually thankless support spot was occupied by Warped. All I knew about Warped was that they are from Melbourne, but I'm always up for a new musical experience, especially when it occurs where I'm going to be anyway.

Following their performance, which was about the closest you can come to being caught in a violent thunderstorm without getting drenched to the bone, I now know one more thing about them - they are an amazing live act.

Jesus, have John Nolan and Tim Hemensley been spending all their spare time fathering love children or is there something in the Melbourne water which causes that town's citizens to spontaneously group together in units of three and form monster power trios? As I listened to them, I was thinking "Powder Monkeys", I was thinking "Bored!", I was thinking "Faaark, what a great band!"

Just before they stepped up onto the stage, a quick head count came up with the number 24; this included the three band members themselves, a couple of guys playing pool and a barman. During their set some more punters drifted in, but the area in front of the stage continued to stay sparsely populated, unjustly so. Far from being deterred, the band took advantage of the situation and used the dance floor as an extension of the stage; if the crowd wouldn't come to them, then they would go to the crowd (well, not the drummer for obvious reasons, but you know what I mean) and if the room wasn't full of people, it was certainly full of glorious noise.

For me, catching this band was like getting an early Christmas present.

During the break, I got talking to a bloke who told me that he would have had no idea that the Rifles were playing anywhere, but for the fact that he'd been in a record shop that morning and had happened to glance at Drum Media for the first time in about two years... and found that they'd been just up the road from him the night before (they played at the Caringbah Bizzos last night and he's a citizen of the Sutho shire). Seeing that they were on again tonight, he'd left the wife at home in front of the TV and driven up to town, largely in the faint hope of hearing "Electravision Mantra".

This does raise the issue of why anyone would expect to have any idea of what's happening around town if they don't make the effort to consult an appropriate news source regularly, but clearly there is a God who answers all prayers and sometimes the answer isn't "No".

I lost sight of him once the Rifles started up, but I think I can safely assume that he would have achieved nirvana when the Rifles got to their fourth song of the night, which was an absolutely cooking rendition of that very piece of music he'd been seeking!

As could be expected, the set consisted of large helpings from the recently released "A Mid-Stream Of Consciousness" together with a little something from each of the previous albums, plus a full-on (so full-on it was frightening) cock rock rendition of "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love", for which the version played during last week's harbour cruise had merely served as a warm up. While there was still an undertone of glee to the performance, it was more pleasure derived from achievement rather than the vicarious joy of gently lampooning the original.

This is not to say that the Rifles have sold out or no longer take their own music seriously. To these ears they are sounding sleeker and stronger today than they ever did. The Barman has used the word "maturity" in describing their new album, but there remains plenty of youthful enthusiasm and blind, passionate aggression in their music as well, with the founding axe duo of Steedman and Morris still leading the sonic attack in front of a rhythm section powerful enough to slay dragons and lay waste small countries. Of course, by the time they had reached this point, they had the audience in the palms of their hands and could have given us the Mickey Mouse Club theme and got away with it, such was the power and sweep of their performance.

Introducing the first encore (and obviously referring to the lengthy period between the last album and the newie), Damien Lovelock claimed that we were about to get something off their next album, which according to him is currently scheduled for release some time in 2006, and he earnestly requested that no one in the audience die of old age in the meantime (or at least that they first make provision in their wills for purchase of the album when it comes out...). What we got instead was "Bill Bonney Regrets", but it's the thought that counts.

Looking over the soundman's copy of the set list, I see that we were originally scheduled to get "Light Of Life", "Some Kind Of Feeling" and their cover of "Journey By Sledge" from the newie as well, but I for one won't be complaining about the substitution of "Tubular Greens", "Back In The Red" and their cover of Devo's "Girl You Want" before the time ran out and we were all shown the door.

Speaking of the soundman (Lee from the Thermals once again) I couldn't help noticing that he had a large DAT recorder going throughout the entire set. Hmm, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" came out in 1986 and "Yizgarnnoff" came out in 1993, which means we must be due for another live one this year! However he claimed that it was just to see how they were sounding and sadly there's no current intention to put out another live one from this tour.

Sydneysiders note: At the end of the show they announced that with the recent cruise having been such a success (it was sold out well before the day), they're doing another one straight after Christmas. Now that the woman at the photo shop has explained to me what I was doing wrong (or at least outlined some of the more egregious errors - I think Tony Mott can continue to sleep easy for a while yet), I'm keen to have a go again, so I signed up on the way out. Presumably by the time you read this, ticket details will be on their web site.
- John McPharlin
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