Live Review: The Living End, Money For Rope

The Living End

Money For Rope achieve what The Meanies couldn't the night before, winning over the early audience. Playing rambunctious garage rock'n'roll, they are tight, energised, but most of all relevant. When four of the six members take on vocal duties together, as the duelling drummers thrash it out in the shadows, they are unstoppable and put The Living End on notice.

Where The Living End initially looked to the UK for inspiration, White Noise is unashamedly Australian. Steeped in the country's long-running pub-rock tradition, the record centres on big riffs and even bigger choruses, just like heroes AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, whose Most People I Know they briefly cover tonight. It's a record that seems at home when played at a pub rather than the festivals or stadiums they have become accustomed to, so the Corner makes an ideal setting. White Noise was released a decade after their debut and has seen the band come full circle, to the point of reinventing themselves. It's their first release on an independent label since the '90s and it shows. The radio singles are there, in fact they cram into the first third of the album, but once out of the way it's Chris Cheney left to his own devices as he lets his guitar do much of the talking.

Performing the album live and many of the tracks for the first time in years, Cheney embellishes each song with extended solos (aided by the addition of an extra guitarist), evidence he is more comfortable as a lead guitarist than a lead singer. The record that, supposedly, refuelled his passion for music, it seems onstage and in full flight he couldn't be happier. As an album and indeed a setlist White Noise is disjointed. The title track, the band's most successful radio single, is a clear crowd favourite as the back-and-forth chorus is chanted at full volume. The middle section is filled with darker songs such as Loaded Gun and 21st Century, which don't have the instant appeal of previous releases, but nonetheless are appreciated when dusted off and performed. The album's boldest statement perhaps comes in the Calypso-inspired Sum Of Us that closes tonight's performance, Cheney channelling Bob Marley as he sings, “God help those who don't help the others/Some of us have more rights than the others”.

A truly great live band playing a pub-rock record, though White Noise is far from The Living End's strongest album, they deliver it with such passion and verve that it's hard not to get caught up in the moment.