I'm being down to earth about.......Airbourne

How does the saying go?

“If it’s too loud then you are too old.” Then finally I am too old, but not too stupid I hope.

Against my better judgment I went to see Airbourne in Hamburg last night. Please understand, I was not pre-disposed to dislike them but I just had an inkling of the kind of evening I was in for.

In principle, I’m not against loud music. I’m a rock fan of the old school and sing in a rock band myself so I appreciate that rock music should be towards the higher end of the volume scale.

However, volume is not, and never should be the be all and end all. Airbourne, sadly fall into this into this category. Their diehard fans won’t care one jot of course. This is hard rock designed to the lowest common denominator. Rock until your ears bleed.

There is no light and shade to the music of Airbourne. It’s just balls out attack from the first to last minute. It is also where comparisons of the band to AC/DC fall well short in my opinion. Through both the Bon Scott and Brian Johnson era’s AC/DC rock but combine their music with light & shade, guile & humour. It is what has made them the worlds most famous, durable and successful rock band. These are elements totally missing from Airbourne’s repertoire.

The band is really about Joel O’Keefe. He’s the singer and lead guitarist and presumably writes most of the material as well. The action is all about him and to be honest apart from watching the other three shake their heads from time to time they might just as well not have been there. Visually it is just sweat drenched hard rock. 15 or so seemingly identical songs played at speed at mind numbing volume. I can vouch for the sweat as at one point Mr. O’keefe appeared next to me by the mixing desk and after passing his still soloing SG to a roadie demanded my assistance to clamber on top of the adjacent structure to continue his solo.

What was clear from this close encounter is that he clearly needs the money at the moment as his stage jeans are well past their best………….and, that whatever else, he works his butt off for 90 minutes or so.

As regards the sound, well I know the bass was plugged in ‘cos the roadie tested it before Airbourne came on stage. It sounded bloody awful, like some industrial pressing machine but it was working. Which was funny ‘cos once the band began to play I couldn’t hear it anymore. In fact, everything at the lower end of the scale was obliterated by the bass drum. Just removing that offending object from the stage set up alone could improve Airbourne’s sound no end. Vocally, Joel is in the Bon Scott mould (please Bon, no offence mate) but at the higher end. He pretty much stays there even when he’s talking, if you could call it talking, to the audience. There’s little variation, just attack, attack, attack.

Songs? Well they played some, although it could have been just one long one punctuated with gaps for beer, swearing and changing guitars for some pointless reason.

In summation: I don’t dislike Airbourne. I just don’t get it anymore. The boring monotony of it. So for me, the title of the new album should have been “No Guts, No Glory, No point”. Although I must say, the idea of “Cheap wine, cheaper women” is admirable, but in this day and age, not exactly pc.

Final word has to go to the support band ‘Taking Dawn’. I nearly laughed so much as to cry. This was pure Spinal Tap. I often wonder why a band like Airbourne has band as support that sound so much like….er… Airbourne. The place was sold out with people waiting to see Airbourne so why dilute the experience by giving them a poor copy?

Anyway, the OTT solo’s, preening, gurning and charging about the stage was hilarious. Just when I thought it couldn’t be funnier their ‘piece de resistance’ was a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’. I shall cherish that memory forever. Taking Dawn (whoever she is)? More like taking the pi$$