Cashed Up Bogans

23 January 2013 | 10:25 am | Samson McDougall

"It’s such a beautiful country and so much fun and the shows are amazing and the people are great, so any chance I get to go there I’m going to be very excited... I’m comin’ out a week early to hang out. Save a refrigerator full of VBs and Big Ms for me.”

More Oh Sees More Oh Sees

Pretty well every time San Francisco's Thee Oh Sees venture to this end of the world they play some apeshit festival and a bunch of shows that'll be talked about for a long while after. They can be sneaky fuckers too; they'll play off-the-cuff gigs in unexpected places while they're in town. They're not the kind of band to turn up, play the show, take the cheque and bail; they have a tendency to hang about and actually absorb a bit of what's going on while they're here.

Bassist Petey Dammit loves it so much he's heading down a week early to get acclimatised. Over severe beeping in the phone line from San Francisco (“We can just pretend I'm working on a hot new techno track... We could say it's an Atari 2600,” he laughs) he says can't wait to sink his teeth into a bit of Aussie cuisine. “I'm definitely a Four'N Twenty man,” he says, a self-professed lover of Australian bogan culture and service station meat pies. “I don't know why I love [them], I just do. It's one of the tastiest things... I did find one place that imports them and I got really excited but in my living situation I don't really have access to an oven or microwave or anything. It's probably good for my waistline that I don't eat those every day, but I wish I could.” He goes on to explain his housemate occupies the kitchen area of his apartment and that he wouldn't want the warming of pies to interrupt any potential moments of passion.

As part of their last visit to Australia Thee Oh Sees partook in an Australia Day rooftop party above Melbourne's Evelyn Hotel with local faves UV Race. It was a scorcher, UV Race's Marcus Rechsteiner's Aussie flag undies were way too small, many ciders were consumed and the music was amazing. For Dammit, that show brings some painful memories. “I have a friend, Daniel Aranda, he works at The Sweet Life [Tattoo] there in Northcote, and I got tattooed on my throat there by him the day before Australia Day. My throat was... it was incredibly painful and that next day in the sunshine too, that whole show at the Evelyn [he sucks air and laughs].” He's also copped a sweet 'Cashed Up Bogan' tattoo here by none other than Eddy Current Suppression Ring drummer Danny Young. “I should write Danny right now and try to get an appointment,” he says.

Thee Oh Sees are the genuine touring outfit. They've also released over a dozen albums and half a dozen EPs in eight years. The theory behind their prolificity is something along the lines of: those who keep moving don't grow stagnant. And their freneticism on stage and record is not something that can be turned on or off for effect. “We try to be ahead of ourselves, especially in our live shows,” he continues. “Last year in Australia we probably played a few songs that hadn't been recorded yet, so we get ahead of ourselves by maybe an album.”

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The quartet are back out to play ATP among a whole bunch of other shows this summer. It'll pay to keep your ear to the ground for sneaky gigs as, even if you've seen them many times before, they always bring an honesty of performance that you'll carry around for days. Dammit's certainly excited. “The main guy that runs [ATP], Barry Hogan, he's a good man and for some reason he loves our band, so he kinda puts us on the bill whenever he can... It's a wonderful opportunity, I feel incredibly fortunate. It's such a beautiful country and so much fun and the shows are amazing and the people are great, so any chance I get to go there I'm going to be very excited... I'm comin' out a week early to hang out. Save a refrigerator full of VBs and Big Ms for me.”

Thee Oh Sees will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 6 February – The Barwon Club, Geelong VIC
Saturday 16 February – All Tomorrows Parties, Melbourne VIC
Friday 1 February – Lost City Festival, Adelaide SA
Saturday 2 February – The Bakery, Perth WA
Monday 11 February – Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Wednesday 13 February – The Great Northern, Byron Bay NSW
Thursday 14 February – The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Friday 15 February – Elsewhere, Gold Coast QLD