Friday 02/03/07 Dallas Crane, Bob Log III @ The Esplanade, Melbourne

The Aussie rock scene is a peculiar beast. Australia, even more so than the US, seems to never have quite gotten over the seventies: manes of hair, head-banging and sweaty fat frontmen abound in a genre of music that always seems strangely familiar. Even the cream of Aussie bands who make it over to the UK (Jet, Wolfmother etc) are deeply rooted in the hard rock styles of Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and other RAWK bands. And it doesn't matter that most of this music could come straight out of your Dad's LP collection, Aussie Rock attracts legions of fans from across generations, both male and female: hence why at Dallas Crane's gig this evening, dolled up teenage girls can be seen dancing with overweight middle aged men.

Dallas Crane have been a staple of Aussie Rock for the best part of a decade now, winning critical acclaim and teetering on the edge of mainstream success although never quite achieving the following of some of their peers. They've toured with Ryan Adams, The Black Keys and You Am I, and last year released their fourth album, ‘Factory Girls’ to widespread prasie in the Australian music press. Combining the musicianship and power balladry of Aerosmith, with the metallic energy of Aussie forebears AC/DC, it's not hard to see why Dallas Crane have built such a fervent fanbase.

First though, a moment must be taken to acknowledge the stagecraft of support act Bob Log III, who actually succeeds in doing what so many supports fail to do: warming up the crowd. Although his vocals are barely audible (his microphone is, after all, attached to an old fashioned telephone handset which is suspended in the middle of his fully visored crash helmet), it's Bob's music and personality that get the audience so excited. Zooped-up country riffs played on a savage guitar, and backed by 100-mile-an-hour drum machine beats create some genuinely frenetic dancing, while his ramblings through a thick Arizona drawl help convince us that he could quite possibly be completely insane. Boy can he play guitar though.