Project Description
SEBASTIAN BACH
Manning Bar, Sydney
27 October 2017
(Live Review)
Reviewer Benjamin Smith
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Nestled away amidst the sprawling grounds of Sydney University’s stunning campus is a little place called the Manning Bar. It’s stage has hosted everyone from Something for Kate to Cosmic Psychos, from Drowning Pool to The Misfits. Tonight it is graced by the one and only Sebastian Bach, rock n’ roll’s last great torchbearer. In Bach, rock n’ roll finds its truest believer. Chuck Berry might have invented it, Nikki Sixx might have embodied it and countless others have died in its service, but no one has quite so revelled in the idea of it and all that it conjures as has Sebastian Bach. His whole demeanour is that of a teenage boy desperate to live out the fantasy of girls and parties and decadence. It’s as if he starts every morning with a giant cup of the rock n’ roll Kool-Aid.
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His performance feature tracks mostly taken from the two Skid Row records that count, the self-titled and Slave to the Grind. Most people are probably there to hear 18 and Life, I Remember You and Youth Gone Wild, but his commitment to giving 100% of himself to every note off every track means that the show is tuned to 11 from start to finish. The fact that the venue’s air conditioning clapped out probably helped raise the intensity level considerably, with Bach at one point exclaiming “next time we’re getting a bigger room with some a/c. I’m way too fucking old for this shit”. His current band playing as a four piece nail most of the tracks and keep up with Bach’s antics admirably, including avoiding being whipped in the head by the microphone he helicopters on its cord throughout the show.
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The combination of the ballads and the heavier tracks give the show a nicely balanced feel and as a special treat Bach does two Rose Tattoo numbers acapella for encore, finally finishing with AC/DC’s TNT and a tribute to the great Bon Scott.
The opening act, Gypsy are like a power trio version of Iron Maiden. At least that’s where their vocalist seems to have taken most of his singing cues from. The sound is probably more dense than your average Maiden track and its definitely less inclined to Maiden’s rambling poetic grandeur but they’re entertaining and play their asses off. It’s a good warm up set and they’re probably a band for Sydney metal scene fans to keep an eye on.
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There are probably some people who feel like this kind of aggrandised, unreconstructed metal and rock n’ roll is almost impossible to appreciate from anything but the most ironic perspectives. Those people can shut the fuck up. It’s meant to be fun and many of today’s oh-so-serious whatevercore warriors could take a lesson from the likes of Bach and Associates in stagecraft and performance and crowd management. His connection to the audience comes from a genuine affection for and affinity with them, because despite his success at heart, he still is them. At one point it looked like a fight might break out. Rather than calling in security and making a giant buzzkill out of the whole thing Bach reminded the scufflers that we were there to have a good time and if they didn’t like it to get the fuck out. That was the start and the finish of that.
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Check out Josh Pike’s gallery of this show HERE
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