Gig Review: Skinny Hobos @ Galatos, Auckland – 25/05/2018

On a cool and wet Auckland night, many faithful rock devotees arrived to experience and enjoy a night of mostly Auckland-made Rock at the inner-city hall that is Galatos.

Bam! AnimalHead were out of the blocks and running hot, these three guys perform great hard and dynamic rock that is a consuming force. Drummer Dan Rooke was working like a smiling assassin with all arms flailing, and mouth open madness, but he still kept the beat, even when the sticks were flying. Meanwhile Campbell Mickell shredded his guitar and sang away with gravelly energy, and it was all buttressed by Josh Obrien’s stout bass throughout. Their rendition of the Beatles Come Together was excellent, it rocked hard and was littered with great vocal harmonies from Campbell and Drummer Dan.

Phew this was just the first of four bands, I better tee up some Red Bull.

Coridan were next, a brilliant four-piece band where every member of the band has a job to do and by gosh they do it well. Singer Dity Maharaj sung with gusto and prose, while guitarist Mike Raven surgically worked his strings, Nick Raven’s bass was a strong and steady influence and last but not the least of the Raven’s saw Kris playing the drums with a blend of technical bravado. When the band went all sparkly and melodic to the strobe lights it was a stunning shock to the eyes and ears, and my, it was good. With a great collection of dynamic songs Coridan will impress wherever they play.

His Masters Voice loaded their bluesy and ballsy sound on our senses, and it’s not just with sound they exude this onslaught, but also the hairy tattooed wonder of their presence is formidable, they had us in an aural and visual trance and we were mesmerised and pleasured in equal measure. Jesse Sorensen was almost completely hidden under a wave of flowing hair, but he never faulted on dispensing smooth and cutting vocals and wonderfully rhythmic guitar, and the occasional cool lead breaks. When a mega bluesy guitar solo is required then Az Burns is your man, on song as always, he ripped out his broad and melodic sound that grew in intensity with each pluck and pull. All this bluesy madness was held together like a sticky date with formidable Bass from Brandon Bott and Rene Harvey crunching on the drums. At times they rocked it out and then funnelled it down, where you would end up swaying in a trance, and just when you thought you might be lost to reality they amped up the beat and you broke off and rocked out. You are the Masters and we are the apprentices.

Skinny Hobos were finally up, the crowd were amped to hear them play, and play they did, better than ever. The Hobos new album is sensational, and these two rock gods peeled off their album songs with tremendous vigour and energy that made you love it even more. It was incredible how much the songs sounded like the shiny new album. They have a formidable broad sound, with stirring lead guitar and fat bass, how the hell Mr Alex Elvis gets them all working is amazing. There is a guitar stack and a Bass Rig, and he makes both work hard, he has many effect pedals, and he puts them to good work too, but he somehow makes it look easy, I rarely saw him looking down and looking for a pedal to stomp on. The hot pulsing drums from Sam ‘aka’ Texas Holdom was a spectacular fusion of drum’s, cowbells, and cymbals. Some parts were neat fills while other times it was like an all-encompassing explosion, how he also provided his superb vocal harmonies was absurd.

Hobo songs are rich with driving rhythms and cool riffs that lead to cool bluesy breaks and the eventual triumphant onset of surging climaxes, and tonight they let rip and we lappet it up. Alex with his guitar and his red tie wearing drummer friend Texas have played together steadily for 4 years now, and they clearly are at home on stage, they have tried and tested these songs and they are perfect. After so many gigs and then recording these gems they have made an art of performing these songs, and we the audience were simply able to consume and enjoy the abundant fulfilment of sight and sound in rapturous approval.

Alex and Texas genuinely thanked everyone for being there, like the support bands and crew, but they made sure we the punter felt appreciated and the rock love fest was complete, we were thrilled and exhausted and we were happy, very happy, thank you.

_{Review written by Andrew Smit}