So how the fuck did those guys get anywhere?
The geek radio sleaze Howard Stern was once defending Bon Jovi’s massive success in an argument with some guests. No one in the argument liked the band but Howard’s point was that the people had spoken. 20 million copies of Slippery when wet didn’t mean it was a good album, it just meant that 20 million people liked it enough to buy.
There are three basic types of people, if divide a crowd into 3 categories, visual, audible and kinesthetic (feeling) you have to satisfy one of these elements enough to get an individual’s attention. We all have different levels of the three but usually one is the more dominant. So if you have a room full of punters and you are an purely audible band, with no visuals and no emotional energy, you will only get the attention audible types in the crowd, the visual will loose interest and the kinesthetic may pick up a bit of a vibe off of the audible types and you may get a little bit of atmosphere. The bands that really work the magic and get all three happening are celebrated and revered,we’ve all been in a room with a fantastic band, blowing the place away, you can feel the energy overwhelm you and everyone is in for the ride, powerful addictive stuff
Getting in the pocket is the magic space that great bands can access at will, be it a well rehearsed muscle memory and or a particular chemistry between players. The band knows that feeling and it is as addictive as great sex or a powerful drugs, maintaining access to that space is a deceptive thing and it can haunt a band when they loose that access. It usually calls for someone to be sacked, a sacrifice to the rock gods in hope of a resurrection. My first memory of it in the original Mourners lineup was opening for Ian Moss at a small bar called Billboards in Canberra. Moss had pulled an all star band together, we were thrilled to be opening for him, our band were in a fantastic place and during that time we had taken our song writing to another level, we had some great new songs ready to go.
We got to the gig and it was full house, walking in through the front doors, through the packed crowd to the back stage area you could feel a fantastic energy already. As we got to the corridor leading to the band room and there was mayhem ahead. Moss’s road crew had beaten the crap out of a few over zealous punters and a major scuffle had broken out, we waded in and pulled a few bodies out and with the management and bouncers it was calmed down. But it was clear the roadies were over top and taking their roll and little to seriously, but that’s rock’n roll. In the band room the vibe was crap, we were getting barked at as the blood pressure was still a little too high, there was not going to be a relaxed, easy path onto the stage.
I locked eyes with one of the goons and we had a little exchange, I basically thanked him for the good vibes. There was a lot of tension and before we knew it they were telling us to go on, as I turned to walk on stage I threw up in a bin, something I had never done. The crowd erupted as we came on, there was no time to think about what the fuck just happened it was time to play. Three or four songs in something magic happened,it suddenly felt effortless, like I just had to open my mouth and the singing came out. I looked around at the guys and it was like we were all in a bliss state, we were flying, the road crew were now rocking out with us, pumping fits and yelling from side stage as were the crowd. It was a powerful band in the pocket and that is the space, it is rock’n roll magic. It ruined me, I have never recovered and I have a burning continual need to get back to that space.
Not every gig goes so well, some are absolute nightmares. Promoters will pair up bands just to get your loyal crowd there and make sure some money comes through the door.This is where those three elements can really come into play.We arrived at the sound check to hear a really lame attempt at a John lee Hooker style boogie taking place, we all cut our teeth in a pretty solid garage scene in the Northern suburbs of Canberra and ZZ Tops La Grange was a standard jam tune.We stood near the desk in disbelief when our drummer Justin Mcmahon loudly said what we were all thinking “How the fuck did these guys get anywhere” well within earshot of their roadies and sound guy and um, things went pear shaped real quick.
Hunters and Collectors were a band of their time, successfully riding the punk zeitgeist to national fame. They wrote a couple of solid songs that are now part of national psych of a particular generation of music fans. Unfortunately at the time their music missed us on all three levels, they were competition and that was how we were, we were our tribal about the idea of being in a band .We well knew weren’t a good fit with their local diehard fans either.To top off the good vibes Steve Grieve did an interview in the local music paper Pulse leading up to the gig and gave the band a brutal critique on their lack of musical prowess.
We wore a lot of hostile bullshit from their road crew, they weren’t as heavy as the Moss crew but they let us know we weren’t in for a good night, as did their crowd when we walked on stage. But hey just like Bon Jovi the people had spoken.