The Hitmen DTK banner is a sometimes undervalued sidenote to the first spits of Australian punk (whatever that is or was).
Initially formed around members of Radio Birdman's coterie - lead singer and mainstay Johnny Kannis is that odd rabble-rousing presence in the white tie and tails acting as some kind of MC/crowd fluffer you'll often see in old Birdman footage - this is the band that went on with it, taking this music to the suburbs and beer barns as their forebears self-destructed.
This is a solid representation and cross-section of the music that made them, 40 years on. Having a shot at the towering rumbles of Sex Pistols' Pretty Vacant or The Clash's definitive take on I Fought The Law is potentially fraught, but this Hitmen DTK line-up is a tight as a fish's arse hard rock band of experienced blokes who know what they're doing and don't mess it up. Probably closer to what they were originally about musically, they still sincerely honour Shake Some Action by Flamin' Groovies, which fairly confidently dances along that tightrope between power pop, old new wave and something a bit tougher.
