|
 |
Mental As Anything The Regal Tent, Sat 14 Feb It took right up until The Mental's second last song of the main set, the Roy Orbison cover Working For The Man, for someone to yell out for their signature song, The Nips Are Getting Bigger, which I thought was a surprisingly belated response. But, of course, we all knew that that song couldn't have been too far away, and lo and behold, it was next. In fact, as much as I loved Mental As Anything in their day, especially during their seminal years, it didn't take too much nous to figure out how predictably safe they had a) always been, b) had become and c) have finally settled on for the rest of their return to the pub circuit time together. And with a repertoire as instantantly recognisable as this, and a sound that has remained as solid as ever, I guess this could be seen as a good thing. Opening with yet another anthem for the chronically boozed and embattled, Too Many Times, it took right up until the beginning of third song, Concrete And Clay, for a roadie to finally figure out where a problem with Greedy Smith's keyboard was located, which was with his foldback monitor. During the hunt for the cause of the drop-out in sound, both Smith and the audience had to put up with an annoying person in a very bad shirt reaching over the instrument, unplugging leads and just generally standing in the way. But once fixed the show took off and under very hot conditions the band never once faltered. Rattling off songs such as If You Leave Me Can I Come Too?, the corny but clever Berserk Warriors, You're So Strong, Just Like Romeo And Juliet, Brain Brain, Apocalypso, the delightfully depressed Come Around and the gawd awful but pleasantly delivered Live It Up. And that's Mental As Anything's greatest asset; no matter how smarmy they allowed themselves to become, they always managed to back it up with great tune. Returning for a three song encore, which included the drastically overlooked Whole Wide World and a cracking take on Chuck Berry's Rock And Roll Music, the audience left looking very satisfied, even if very few of them showed it on the dance floor. Now that was definitely the weather's fault. |
|
The latest issue available now!     |
All content copyright dB Magazine