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Bob Log III.
 Speaking to Bob Log III on the eve of his show in Hobart, one gets the feeling that the scotch swillin', helmet wearin', monkey claw guitarin' matchstick from Tucson, Arizona is about as Australian as you and me. Save for a quick one-night-only show in Bellingham, Washington to honour the closing of one of his favourite bars, Log has been in the country since December, when he was the mystery act at the annual Meredith Music Festival. Staying in Melbourne with friends, Log has been writing and recording demos for his next record, the follow-up to 2003's 'Log Bomb'.
"Frankston [Victoria] is a good place to write songs. I mean where I live in Tucson it's the same way. There's not a lot else to do. Some bands, you go to LA and make a record but you're kinda getting' sidetracked by all this other crap to do. Here in Frankston, you just don't leave the room and you play guitar all goddamn day," he reveals with an affectionate twang. It's a notoriously rough place, its characters likely to inspire a variety of subject matter. "Oh man. Yeah." He pauses. "It's something!"
Log has been recording songs on a hand-held tape recorder while his playback monitors are of the inflatable kind, best for use in bathtubs. "So far this is probably mostly just so I can remember these songs, but it sounds pretty good... and it floats! That's what my record is. That's where it's at right now," he jokes.
Log has been doing the rounds of late, playing some 15 shows on this tour in the big cities as well as Ballarat and Belgrave. "Belgrave was pretty interesting. There was this kid in the front row and just as I got to the stage he starts screaming 'Bob Log! Bob Log!' and by the third time he says 'Bob Log!' he pukes all over the floor. And I ain't even gotten on the stage yet and this guy throws up this giant puddle. And the people, at first they looked annoyed at him and then they just started dancing in it."
Australian audiences have embraced the man who wears a gaudy unzipped jumpsuit and does push-ups on stage, who gets women to come up and sit on his knee while he plays sleazy slide-guitar blues, his feet pumping out a thick 4/4 beat on a cymbal and floor tom.
"Oh it's pretty much the same everywhere," says Log, underlining that you can be Japanese, Swedish or American and still be almost guaranteed to 'get' what Bob Log III is doing up there on stage. "I think mostly, if you listen to my music, it's talking in the language of guitar and drums. And basically everybody speaks guitar and drums. And I guess boobs too, and a lot of people speak that too."
It's a language that he learned from the greatest purveyors of rock 'n' roll this country has ever seen. "I mean I grew up listening to AC/DC so technically that's all they really speak too. So I blame everything that's happened to me since I was 11 years old on AC/DC". So as Australians I guess we're to share the blame for all things Log. "Yep! That's your fault!" he laughs.
Like your average Aussie music fan Log went to this year's Big Day Out. "The Stooges! That was fantastic man! Oh my god! He [Iggy Pop] made everybody else seem like a child. And talk about fuckin' amazing lyrics. 'We're gonna have a real good time tonight!' The end! And 'Alright!' It's like any band that spends more than five minutes on their lyrics is a fucking idiot. Yeah, it made me feel real special and stupid for spendin' three whole days in Frankston writin' lyrics".
It's been a good ten years since a poncho-draped Log stormed the stage on the Recovery show when his band Doo Rag, upon the invitation of Twenty Miles singer Judah Bauer, also of Blues Explosion, plugged in and banged out a mutant blast of hillbilly slidin', beatin' and hollerin'. This time around he'll be joined on stage by the amply-breasted eye candy that is the Town Bikes.
"They're Melbourne girls and you know they're coming to Adelaide don't ya? That's gonna be the only shows on the whole tour that the Town Bikes will be dancin' with me. So it's lucky, lucky Adelaide. Lucky me too!"
Lenin Simos
 | Bob Log III plays at Jive on Fri 3 March (with The Gels) and Sat 4 March (with Terrence Dicks). |
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