Live Review: Right There On My TV

Anybody who thought they were in for the usual Tote mini-fest today is in for a goddamn shock. Today we celebrate Paul Drane, a man who's been an indisputable force in Australian music for 40 years, on his birthday and there is a marathon happening in here — 16 bands with no gaps, no overlap. 

Highlight of the opening sets is Tankerville playing double guitar'n'drums rock and we love it. Following are Eaten By Dogs with Austin blues, slide guitar and country strumming before Cherrywood rock an awesome Who Listens To The Radio (The Sports) cover. No one's really drunk enough to let loose but you can see the little hints that we aren't far off. Mutton's guttural bass-heavy punk leads into Rolling Blackout Coastal Fever's 'tough pop' — buoyant, beachy tunes. Negligee-clad Little Desert frontwoman Esther Rivers belts it out. When they finish, there's a moment of stunned silence and someone in the audience chokes out, "That was awesome!" and the room chuckles in stunned agreement.

Cornering the band room are Cash Savage & The Last Drinks. The mic cuts out during their first song — something we'll get used to tonight. After finding a fresh one, she growls out Let Go and jumps on the spot like a cheeky toddler. The rest of the band swoop in and whatever's left of the afternoon's floodgates collapse, the room going into a frenzy.

It's a bit of a shame that we only get three songs from Chris Russell's Chicken Walk — it feels more like a tease than anything. Still, Russell hops and crows like the bantam delta blues rooster he is and the upstairs crowd shakes 'til we wonder just how structurally sound The Tote's ceiling really is.

There is zero room to move in the band room when Graveyard Train starts. Nick Finch — wearing a pair of ski goggles — leads the room in singing Happy Birthday before jumping into a hammy, triumphant version of Love Is In The Air. Who knew that song needed a chain player? Finch wades into the crowd and gets swallowed whole. When he makes it back to the stage the boys get strong-armed into an encore — Bit By A Dog (growl). Seeing as it's Drane's special day, it's a bit rude for the Train to so blatantly take the cake.

Power is right. These guys smash it; it's like watching the hard-rock beasts of the '70s and '80s in their prime. Their Jailbreak cover is a red-hot glorious mess, a good chunk of the audience getting up to take a crack at the second verse.

Digger & The Pussycats cozy up on the little bit of bench by the window in the front bar, shaking their arses for Johnston Street's passersby. Bits of drum stick and ceiling shoot into the crowd that runs in to push teetering gear back on to the 'stage'. You Drive Like A Cunt takes the mosh award for the evening.

It's time for the supergroup and what an insane show-topper it is. The man of the hour gets up to say a few words, claiming there's "about 400 people out back" waiting to sing and he's not far off. There's Dan Kelly, Gold Class' Adam Curley — who nails the lithe, dark sexuality of INXS' By My Side — the recently defunct Twin Beasts' Giuliano Ferla, and Gareth Liddiard flogging Paul Kelly's I've Done All The Dumb Things as the crowd loses its collective shit. Quincy McLean somehow manages to get through the phone book's worth of lyrics for Oz rock-opera Evie (Parts 1, 2 and 3). Cherrywood's Tim Durkin, shirtless and looking a little worse for wear, and King Parrot's Ari White come out for the final tune It's A Long Way To The Top, but — unwilling to let them have all the fun — they're quickly joined by Drane, what looks like his entire family, some crowd members and most of Melbourne's music scene. There's even two fully kitted-out bagpipers, one of whom we're told was part of one of Drane's most iconic moments — that's right, dude played pipes in the flatbed truck driving down Swanston Street for the notorious AC/DC clip.

The night is spot on all 'round and the admiration and respect for a bloke that's had such an impact in his field would be thick enough to keep you warm in the dead of winter.

Happy birthday, Paul, hope you had a corker and cheers for the invite.