The Mod Club
Toronto, Ontario
April 5, 2008

When I asked bassist Justin Street if I could get my hand on a setlist he just smiled and said “we don’t use a setlist mate”.. I’ve been spinning Airbourne’s debut album, “Running Wild”, for a few months now and I know every tune inside and out so if I was standing in the crowd with a pen and paper, I woulda had my 15 songs jotted down but this evening, like most when I shoot a band, I’m carrying a buncha shit and a pen and paper aint included in that pile.  Even though I was the only photographer in the house allowed to shoot that night, I didn’t exactly get any special treatment.  By special treatment I mean the use of “the pit”.  It IS nice to be able to stand in your very special front row in front of front row and leisurely snap away right up close n personal.  But oddly enough, I like just as much to be thrown in to the other pit and made to fight for my pics. 

Yeah that’s right.. there’s the pit and then there’s THE PIT.  For those of you who don’t know, The pit I already mentioned compared to THE PIT is like an elevator with you, maybe a couple other occupants and a string quartet’s version of Barry Manilow’s “Mandy” oozing through the tinny speaker.  THE PIT, however, is the back of a cube van packed fulla jackasses on roller skates with Marilyn Manson bitching through a Marshall stack as you tumble down the side of an endless hill.  So if your “job” is to get a few pics of the people in the Manilow elevator, you’ve got a pretty easy night ahead of you.  But if you’re one of the occupants of the Manson van, good fuckin luck to you brotha!  Yer gonna have a shitload of blurry, out of focus, badly composed photos fulla heads n hands and God only knows what other body parts cuz you have absolutely no control of your immediate surroundings. 

So ya go to take a shot and bam, some fucker’s foot nails ya in the side of the melon.  Great!  Some asshole crowd surfer, man I hate these fucks, just fucked up another potentially awesome shot.  Line up for another shot and what’s this?  Some chick’s left tit just nailed you in the right ear.  This is not a bad thing.  It almost brings a smile to your face but then the right tit smothers your camera lens, too close to get a good focus on, and another masterpiece is ruined. 

One cool thing about this show was that there was a film crew taping the show that night.  Not only did they set up extra lighting along the front of the stage, but they had two camera guys in the pit with two security guards and two cable holding guys.  Who are these guys?  Grips?  All they did was stand there and grip onto the cords running out the back of the cameras so, yeah, they must be the Grips.  But what was with the set of stairs running up to the front of the stage?  Now there’s a prop I’d never seen before.  People kept walking up the stairs as if it was an open invitation to Karaoke along with the band on stage. 

So the lads came out and just let us have it.  The energy was high and the sound was superb.  Like I said I’ve been spinning the album almost daily and every tune sounded just like it did on the album only way fuckin louder… the way it’s supposed to be spun!  During sound check, Joel O’Keefe, lead singer/lead guitarist casually stepped up and tested the system, pumping out a few lines of “Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast”.  I knew right away that this guy’s voice wasn’t being strained at all.  That’s just the way it is.  He wasn’t popping blood vessels trying to hit notes that some asshole producer thought sounded great in the studio but didn’t give a second thought as to how long buddy’s throat was gonna last on tour.  And that’s what REALLY counts these days is the tour.  Nobody’s buying albums anymore so the money is being made LIVE. 

So if you’re a singer out there, reading this shit, and you’re in the studio right now recording some song that has a chorus that you can’t actually sing, then stop recording immediately and tell your producer to quit doing so much blow.  Chances are, that’s the tune they’re gonna pick as your single.  The public is gonna love it and request it constantly and you’re gonna have to pull an Ashley Simpson every night hoping that your world doesn’t come crashing down around you like Milli Vanilli. 

I knew the second I heard Joel open his mouth that he was for real and this almost made me cheer a guy doing sound check for fuck sake.  How geeky is that?  Yapping with Justin and rhythm guitarist Dave Roads before the show, I was blown away at how much of myself I saw in these two guys.  They were like me 15 years ago.  Long hair, jeans, black t-shirts, who fuckin cares about life’s bullshit, and lets just have some fun attitude. 

Not to mention musical taste.  What I was listening to then, is what they like spinning now.  Judas Priest, Kiss, AC/DC, Motorhead… they were pulling the moves that K.K. Downing and Glen Tipton made a standard back in the 80’s.  Hell, Kiss practically invented those synchronized, tandem guitar moves back in the early 70’s but ever since the 90’s kicked in, those crowd pleasing moves were thrown into the shitter and completely frowned upon. But with the likes of Airbourne floating around out there, it appears as if those old moves are back in style baby!  It just brings a giant tear filled grin to my face to see these young rockers paying homage to us old bastards by growing the hair, wearing the studs and pulling the old school moves, breathing new life into it all if you will.  So to them I say THANKS GUYS!  Keep up the great fuckin work!  Keep it real!  And keep on keepin on!!!

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