Live Review: The Aints Play The Saints ('73-'78)

It's been four full decades since legendary Brisbane punks The Saints dropped their seminal debut long-player (I'm) Stranded in 1977, and to celebrate that milestone the band's chief songwriter and guitarist extraordinaire Ed Kuepper has put together a brand new version of his '90s outfit The Aints to play tunes from The Saints' thrilling initial tenure between 1973 and 1978. 

It's a slightly confusing premise, but that matters naught when the band take the stage before a packed crowd and burst into a rollicking rendition of This Perfect Day, Kuepper's gruff voice filling the venue as he attacks his guitar with unrestrained vigour. The keys of respected jazz pianist Alister Spence dominate The Prisoner's intro, while the rhythm section - Paul Larsen (The Celibate Rifles, New Christs) and Peter Oxley (Sunnyboys) - lock in tight and give the dapper Kuepper plenty of room to manoeuvre, that precision continuing as they move on to old fave Erotic Neurotic, which finds Kuepper delivering a scorching solo as Spence's rolling keys add great timbre to proceedings. It seems incredible that these four guys have never played these songs together in anger before tonight, an endearingly ramshackle rendition of Story Of Love showing a few teething issues without ever threatening to run off the rails entirely. 

At this juncture a local horn section makes its first appearance and fittingly The Aints burst into three tracks from The Saints' 1978 third album Prehistoric Sounds - Chameleon, Everything's Fine and the scabrous Swing For The Crime - which famously used horns heavily to define its aesthetic. The newcomers retreat leaving just the main protagonists again, who respond by ripping through Memories Are Made Of This, the sound now full and pristine after a slightly muted beginning. 

At this juncture things get seriously fascinating as Kuepper introduces some tracks purportedly written for The Saints back in the '70s and which have never been aired before: SOS '75 is catchy and intense with a cool swagger and it segues seamlessly into Demolition Girl Part 2, which proves far more restrained than its titular counterpart from the band's debut. Next up they power into the horn-driven Red Aces (a version of which was releases on The Aints' third album Autocannibalism back in 1992), before diving back into The Saints' catalogue proper with a rollicking version of the ominous Brisbane (Security City), the song's sedate intro quickly building into overdrive as the horns kick in and add to the glorious maelstrom. The primal Nights In Venice lifts the intensity factor exponentially, dissolving into squalls of guitar as Kuepper busts out an incredible solo with the band maintaining the tension behind him. They're firing on all cylinders as they move onto the brooding Messin' With The Kid, which also stretches and contorts into an epic monster, Spence's keys adding perfect colour and texture to the mayhem. 

Kuepper bids farewell to the adoring throng and introduces (I'm) Stranded with the caveat, "I'm singing this in a different key because I'm not as young as I used to be" - pretty much his only concession to age the whole evening, the great man still seeming rife with energy - and the crowd brays along with delighted abandon to one of our city's most recognisable anthems, that hometown pride going into overdrive as the horns return and they complete the set with a furious rendition of the evergreen Know Your Product. 

Even as the stage lays deserted, the outpouring of joy continues unabated and the band are eventually coaxed back for an encore, powering through the ragged cover of Ike & Tine Turner's River Deep, Mountain High that The Saints made their own back in the day. Kuepper throws in one more molten solo before the band depart the fray for the last time, capping an incredible night of both nostalgia and top-notch rock'n'roll, as good a first gig by a band as you're ever likely to witness.