Brisbane rock younglings VIOLENT SOHO are preparing for a busy October supporting The Grates locally and in New South Wales. Guitarists and vocalists LUKE BOERDAM and JAMES TIDSWELL tell CHRIS HARMS about lucky breaks, bad reviews, and having pride in your postcode.

A few months ago local quartet Violent Soho suffered a bruising review of their Pigs & TV EP in the pages of Rave. Of particular concern to axemen/singers Luke Boerdam and James Tidswell was the notion of ‘arrogance’, a description they assert is far from the truth. And certainly, neither Violent Soho-ist has an ounce of pretension about them.

“We are just a band that is doing what we enjoy, and getting a review like that, it’s not going to get our spirits down,” says James over a quiet drink outside Ric’s. “We don’t believe that we’re doing genre-breaking, groundbreaking stuff in the first place. And we are the most un-arrogant people. People say to us ‘you guys are so polite.’ Like, when we book shows they’re shocked that we’re a band that says ‘thank you’ and ‘yes please’ and uses manners.”

In the discussion I have with Luke (the quiet one) and James (the chatty one), I can’t find any evidence to dispute what he says, and in fact only become more convinced that it’s actually Violent Soho’s innate good-naturedness that secured them the coveted opening slot on The Grates southern tour in October.

“What happened was John from the Grates – when they were on the Arctic Monkey’s tour – needed an amp to use for the show,” James begins to explain. “So he knew someone who knew Dan from The Sips. Dan said to him, ‘I can get you this James’ guys cab’. He said, ‘No worries. Bring it in’

“After the show I was standing out the back and John actually walked around the back, ‘cos Dan said I was there, and he said to me, ‘Thanks for letting me use your amp. Do you have a copy of your CD?’ So I gave it to him, and later we got a call from their manager who said, ‘Do you guys want to do the Queensland tour?’ and I said ‘Yep’, and he said, ‘well, call this guy’, so I called some agency down in Sydney and they said ‘Do you want to do the New South Wales leg as well?’ and I said “Yes!” (laughs) And that was it.”

With sell-out audiences across two states about to be introduced to Violent Soho’s powerfully delivered garage punk (with more than a hint of early-‘90s melodicism and verve), the four-piece are set to pile into a Tarago and live the touring band dream, at least for a few weeks. Of course that means leaving their beloved Mansfield, which features heavily in Violent Soho lore. So what’s with all the suburban love, I ask? Luke grins as James replies, “I love listening to the Hip Hop show on Triple Zed, and one time we were in the garage at my parents’ house, and we got them to give a shout out ‘to the boys in the 4122’. From then on it was just 4122 everything. Our shirts for The Grates tour has the 90210 symbol with 4122 instead of 90210, with ‘Mansfield’ written underneath it. That’s a good representation of how humble we are. We haven’t moved into the Valley, we’re not trying to be scenesters, we’re not trying to fool anyone…we come from the suburbs, we play early ‘90s music that may be outdated, but at the same time, it’s got the right attitude behind it.”

Violent Soho play with Faker and The Grates on the following local dates: Wednesday Oct 4 @ the Sands Tavern, Maroochydore; Friday Oct 6 @ the Tivoli; Saturday Oct 7 @ the Coolangatta Hotel; and Sunday Oct 8 @ the Zoo (all-ages, on stage at 3pm).

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