Ben KwellerStreetkid Vandal play The Healer on Saturday.
Just who are Streetkid Vandal? For some time now the band have treading the boards as Elroy. Until recently, as frontman Kelly explains.
“To tell you the truth, we haven’t really sat well with Elroy for the last year or so. It’s just too pooncey and too cartoonish. Now that we’ve got a new bass player, Elroy doesn’t seem relevant any more.”
A recent trip to Melbourne was the final straw in the decision to make a break.
“We got some interest from some record companies while we were down in Melbourne, so we kind of thought we have to do it now if we’re going to do it. Streetkid Vandal was something we all agreed on, which was good, because we don’t usually agree on much.”
The aforementioned trip to Melbourne also found the band gain themselves some notoriety, as well as some time on the injury bench. Brisbane rock is developing a sturdy reputation down South.
“You’ve hit the nail on the head there. We got to down there and they said ‘you’re from Brisbane, we love you Brisbane guys’. It’s really starting to build a credible reputation down there, and we had to live up to it.”
“We just organised a tour ourselves, and had a couple more gigs organised while we were down there to fill out the tour. We played at the Espy in Melbourne, and there was a TV there that got smashed and set on fire at the end of the gig.”
Accidentally, of course…
“We’ll say it was an accident,” Kelly chuckles. “It was cool. It sort of got word out in Melbourne and we got a few more people come and see us the following night.”
“Actually, I’m only just walking again, I just got off crutches. The pole I smashed the TV with flew out of my hand, and I didn’t know where it went. It hit Andrew (drums) in the head, and then bang, in the back of my head was a drum, and I went crashing to the ground on my knees into a chunk of glass from the TV screen.”
Had you finished playing? Did you have to get back up and bleed through a couple more songs?
“No I didn’t. And I got out of cleaning up while I went for medical attention…”
