The East Brunswick Club was packed to capacity with a bevy of boozed up fans who’d trekked on down to say a fond farewell to our favourite Aussie sons, The mighty Philadelphia Grand Jury. The boys are completing their final national tour before the band relocates to the UK & they brought a couple of interesting talents with them to join the party.
First on the billing were an act called Teen Archer. These young lads are very skilled at making a lot of noise, which would be better kept in their parents garage and not inflicted on the general public. Their music was a loud obnoxious mix of thrash-metal and grunge. The few songs they played all sounded the same with their vocalist screaming over the top of the unstructured, miscellaneous noise, sounding like a wailing cat in heat. It was one of those moments where I wished I’d brought earplugs to drown out the badness.
Fortunately The John Steel Singers followed shortly after with a cracking set that almost outshone the headliners. The self described long-haired hippies from Brisbane play dreamy pop with reckless abandon and they seemed to be having a blast up onstage. They have an alluring stage presence and even with six members they work together as a cohesive unit, making the best use of a trombone that I have ever seen. Their set was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, with highlights being delightful renditions of “Masochist”, “Rainbow Kraut” and “Strawberry Wine” with the front man Tim Morrissey exciting the crowd and begging them to move closer to the band and fill the ‘layer of hatred’, with most of the punters standing back from the stage.
After a long interval The Philly Jays took to the stage to thunderous applause and their usual pre-recorded voice-over welcoming everyone to the party. With only one album under their belt, the boys played a short sweet set that barely lasted thirty minutes. They pulled out all the favourites from Hope Is For Hopers including “Growing Up Alone”, “I’m Gonna Kill You”, “Going to the Casino (Tomorrow Night)”, “The New Neil Young”, “I Don’t Want To Party (Party)” and ending on their hit single “The Good News”. The encore was comprised of “Wet Winter Holiday” and a surprising cover of Jay-Z‘s “99 Problems”. Their set was highly energetic and full of their typical crazed dancing and thrashing around, with Berkfinger diving into the crowd during the encore to sing amongst his adoring fans. Having seen the Philly Jays a few times, it was slightly disappointing to have one of their last Australian performances be over so quickly, with all of the same old moves from the band and no new material to sink my teeth into. Hopefully their move to the UK will teach them some new tricks and they’ll be back on our shores soon, with some new music, performing better than ever. Good luck overseas Philly Jays. Melbourne misses you already.
