Corner Hotel, Melbourne
January 15, 2020
mclusky* don't do sentimentality (they also don't do capital letters, which is really fucking annoying).
They do biting irony, scathing wit, unintelligible yelling, obtuse absurdism, humourous anecdotes, sweary politeness, and catchy if often atonal rock music. But sentimentality is not a weapon in their impressive onstage arsenal.
But for 20 seconds on a Wednesday night in January, frontman Andrew "Falco" Falkous dropped the acerbic armour and admitted that mclucksy*'s recent Australian tour would most likely be the final time Aussies got to see this slightly modified version of the influential "Welsh" punk band grace a stage, and hinted that this made him a little sad.
(Are any of the band members even Welsh? They're frequently referred to as such, but Falco isn't Welsh. Is it just cos they formed there? Do I need to do research?)
With his guard down, Falco informed the crowd at The Corner just how special the Australian tour had been, and what it meant to be able to bring his old band* down under for what was probably the last time.
All bands say this kind of shit. But for a band for whom sentimentality is in short supply, it means something a bit more than the typical gig pleasantries. Speaking with Falco after the gig, he confirmed that he'd meant everything he'd said - that they might not be back again, and that it had been a bit emotional. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone that he'd gotten genuinely sentimental on stage, lest I ruin his famed persona as the kind of straight-talking non-bullshit-taking raconteur who's probably never cried at a good film.
Oops.
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| Look, he even fucking smiled on stage. |
Anyway, this is a belated review that mainly aims to talk about how fucking good mclusky* is, just like that time I wrote a really fawning ode to Future Of The Left two months after the gig (and which Falco read and that made me unfeasibly happy).
Firstly, that asterisk. That's Falco's way of separating this version of the band, which features the hulking Damien Sayell of The St Pierre Snake Invasion on bass and vocals in place of original member Jonathan Chapple. Chapple's non-appearance appears to have been his choosing and not a result of any lingering animosity, which turned out to be a plus because Sayell is a fucking legend who plays a right-handed bass left-handed, enthusiastically dives into the crowd, happily sings a few numbers, and will honour a shout and buy you a VB if you buy him one.
Firstly, that asterisk. That's Falco's way of separating this version of the band, which features the hulking Damien Sayell of The St Pierre Snake Invasion on bass and vocals in place of original member Jonathan Chapple. Chapple's non-appearance appears to have been his choosing and not a result of any lingering animosity, which turned out to be a plus because Sayell is a fucking legend who plays a right-handed bass left-handed, enthusiastically dives into the crowd, happily sings a few numbers, and will honour a shout and buy you a VB if you buy him one.
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| He's an absolute fucking unit, this guy. |
mclusky* were one of those bands that finished up just as they were getting dangerously good. Their wonderfully titled debut My Pain and Sadness is More Sad and Painful Than Yours was merely a warm-up for the good shit. Across two excellent subsequent albums - Mclusky Do Dallas and The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire - released in 2002 and 2004 respectively, they hit their stride and found some modicum of success. Sadly, by the end of 2004, they were no more.
But as ways lead on to ways, things happened and they came back, albeit briefly it seems. Their second Corner show in Melbourne - the last of their Aussie tour before a quick jaunt around New Zealand - was fiery and funny. Brimming mostly with songs from ...Do Dallas and ...Not On Fire, it was wonderfully raucous and goddamit it looked like Falco was actually having fun.
They played all their "hits" - Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues and She Will Only Bring You Happiness being key among those - before finishing with their triple-j-endorsed favourite To Hell With Good Intentions. They even wheeled out a B-side (No Covers) in their 21-song set, with only There Ain't No Fool In Ferguson as a notable omission.
(Falco later explained he didn't want to play Ferguson because it didn't "sound as good as it should". Which is fair enough.)
Lachlan Ewbank from DZ Deathrays joined the band on stage for a couple of numbers, which was around the point Sayell decided to sing a song in the midst of the crowd. Shit went right off. It was just one of many joyous highlights of the night.
And that's one of the great things about mclusky* - they're joyous, in a darkly hilarious way. Their gigs and music are fun, despite lyrically plumbing the depths of humanity. You can't be a band with a song called Fuck This Band (and the merch to go with it) without a sense of humour. You can't sing about shitter bands than yours getting famous because they have better haircuts than you unless you can laugh about it. Otherwise you'd end up a miserable piss-wreck. And from what I can tell, mclusky* are not miserable piss-wrecks. They're a bunch of rock-music-loving fellows who still get a kick out of 15-year-old songs regarding cowboy killers, taking more drugs than touring funk bands, and other abstract notions that I haven't fully comprehended yet. And they still get said kick because these are good songs that sounds great when played live and are fun to play live. So why the fuck not?
I've never seen Falco refer to mclusky (with or without asterick) as "punk" - he talks about rock music a lot, but never punk (I'll stand corrected on this). But mclusky are punk in the best, truest, and funnest meanings of the word. And this is entirely because they aren't trying to be punk; they aren't trying to be anything. They're just being, and they don't take anything seriously outside of playing the songs properly and in tune.
Hopefully they'll be back. But if Falco's sentimental moment in Melbourne is anything to go by, they probably won't.
In which case, thank fuck for Future Of The Left.
This is a very good article about the mclusky* reunion.
As is this one.
But as ways lead on to ways, things happened and they came back, albeit briefly it seems. Their second Corner show in Melbourne - the last of their Aussie tour before a quick jaunt around New Zealand - was fiery and funny. Brimming mostly with songs from ...Do Dallas and ...Not On Fire, it was wonderfully raucous and goddamit it looked like Falco was actually having fun.
They played all their "hits" - Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues and She Will Only Bring You Happiness being key among those - before finishing with their triple-j-endorsed favourite To Hell With Good Intentions. They even wheeled out a B-side (No Covers) in their 21-song set, with only There Ain't No Fool In Ferguson as a notable omission.
(Falco later explained he didn't want to play Ferguson because it didn't "sound as good as it should". Which is fair enough.)
Lachlan Ewbank from DZ Deathrays joined the band on stage for a couple of numbers, which was around the point Sayell decided to sing a song in the midst of the crowd. Shit went right off. It was just one of many joyous highlights of the night.
And that's one of the great things about mclusky* - they're joyous, in a darkly hilarious way. Their gigs and music are fun, despite lyrically plumbing the depths of humanity. You can't be a band with a song called Fuck This Band (and the merch to go with it) without a sense of humour. You can't sing about shitter bands than yours getting famous because they have better haircuts than you unless you can laugh about it. Otherwise you'd end up a miserable piss-wreck. And from what I can tell, mclusky* are not miserable piss-wrecks. They're a bunch of rock-music-loving fellows who still get a kick out of 15-year-old songs regarding cowboy killers, taking more drugs than touring funk bands, and other abstract notions that I haven't fully comprehended yet. And they still get said kick because these are good songs that sounds great when played live and are fun to play live. So why the fuck not?
I've never seen Falco refer to mclusky (with or without asterick) as "punk" - he talks about rock music a lot, but never punk (I'll stand corrected on this). But mclusky are punk in the best, truest, and funnest meanings of the word. And this is entirely because they aren't trying to be punk; they aren't trying to be anything. They're just being, and they don't take anything seriously outside of playing the songs properly and in tune.
Hopefully they'll be back. But if Falco's sentimental moment in Melbourne is anything to go by, they probably won't.
In which case, thank fuck for Future Of The Left.
This is a very good article about the mclusky* reunion.
As is this one.
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