Dallas Crane + Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union

A night out with Cannon, Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union and Dallas Crane goes a long way to affirming a boy’s faith in Aussie rock and roll. It’s loud, it’s sweaty and the guys aren’t that pretty, but it’s the real thing. Making their way around the country on a ‘beach-side’ tour (basically that means everywhere they usually play, minus Alice Springs) the bands stopped in Hobart on their first of two nights.

By the time Cannon started it was obvious that this was going to be a sell out gig. Cannon have been slugging away on the Melbourne scene recently and have developed a fair following However, their reputation did not precede them on the night and the crowd was a bit ambivalent about what to make of them. After all, they were here for the main attractions: the icon of Australian rock – Tim Rogers; and the increasingly mainstream-friendly Dallas Crane.

Tim Rogers, whose staggering musical ability and party antics place him somewhere between Paul Kelly and David Boon, was up first. The man is the real deal. Full of swagger, his songs made even more sense live than they do on disc.

A tight backing band also helps. Shane O’Mara’s guitar lines range from rock freak-out to country twang and everywhere in between. His slide playing is pretty impressive too. Bassist Pete Lawler was almost worth the admission price alone. Resplendent in leather and porno moustache he looked like a Village People reject and entertained the crowd with a fantastic James Brown-style introduction of Tim mid-set.

Kicking off with some of the acoustic material from the Dirty Ron/Ghost Songs double album, the tempo continued to rise all through the set. The electric guitars were brought out after a few tracks and the radio single Do It Again really had the crowd on-side. Other highlights were the versions of Brother’s Room and Dumb, as well as Shane O’Mara sharing his thoughts on Wolfmother (“All I’m saying is, if you just went out and bought some Black Sabbath albums you wouldn’t need to listen to Wolfmother.”) Unfortunately we didn’t get to see many windmills as the stage is now considerably higher and given Tim’s tall frame, he kept bashing his hand on the ceiling halfway around.

After an enjoyable set from Tim Rogers and the Temperance Union, a quick rest and a drink the punters were clamouring for the front row as Dallas Crane hit the stage. These guys have been together for nearly ten years and, with the odd exception, they have been playing their current batch of songs for the best part of two years and it really shows through in how tight they are. There was nothing missing and they knew how to grab the crowd and take them with them.

Opening up with Ladybug they followed that with the new single Lovers and Sinners. Lovers and Sinners is an interesting song, but probably sounds a bit too much like an AC/DC cliché when played live. After that they returned to more familiar sounds and played a slab of tunes from their last album, including Iodine, Can’t Work You Out and Unlucky Star. Going back to the Twenty Four Seven album, they pulled out a pretty good version of Sweet FA and No Through Road.

But it was the big hits that the crowd really went for. Looking at the crowd, it was probably the first time that a section of the crowd had seen Dallas Crane and as a result the biggest response was saved for the big hits off the self-titled album. Come Clean was a particular highlight, as it always is and Sit On My Knee drew the biggest reaction of the night. With a quick run through of Numb All Over and the big rock ending of Open To Close the band left a heaving crowd begging for more.

Sadly, there was no joint Tim Rogers/Dallas Crane encore, as there had been at other shows but in all it was a pretty damn fantastic night of boozy rock in a sweaty little pub – what more could you want?

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