JAKEB SMITH queries frontman, double bassist and tattoo artist DAVE BEAN about rockabilly punks CASINO RUMBLERS and the rising tide of "trust fund sleeves".

JAKEB SMITH: How was supporting The Misfits, a dream come true? Were they cool guys?

DAVE BEAN: It was a dream come true, Jerry Only was awesome, he kept us talking for hours most nights after the show telling stories of the late ‘70s days and stories about all the legends we love. They didn’t watch us the first night and did the second and kept watching us the whole tour, so that made my time on the tour.

DB: Most of the time it falls together so easy because you don’t have to work out how to fit enough melody into just two punk style guitars, we see an area that needs a hook or melody and that’s where the horns will go. The hardest thing is deciding whether to put horns in certain parts and make sure we ain’t putting them there just because they are in the band.

DB: Well it’s good for me as that’s my day job – tattooing. It is a funny thing, but people are actually getting real wise to what and who they get to do their tattoos and I think that’s a definite step in the right direction, but we still do get the trust fund sleeves come in and have a full sleeve within three months or even less. The hardcore kids seem to hit it hard and have a show or a festival they want it finished by, which I find funny as shit. Girls seem to have really stepped up to the plate and take about 60-70% of my bookings these days and I specialise in old school / punk style tattoos, so I get most of that work.

"Jerry Only was awesome, he kept us talking for hours most nights after the show telling stories of the late ‘70s days and stories about all the legends we love."

DB: Yeah, I will always tour and I have since I was 14. I first started touring as a sound guy then did that for a few months and thought, ‘I can get my band to do this’, and did but never stopped. I have settled down heaps [compared] to what I used to be like, but will never stop music. I also tour doing tattoo festivals and expos, so things will never slow down. Home seems to just be a place to sleep and record these days.

DB: Us, ha ha. I think the Aussie punk bands that tour hard are all in the toughest category, we have been touring for seven years on no money and have been through five vans, half of them across the country in wreckers still, and we ain’t the only band doing it hard. I think all the bands that work and keep it going are the toughest. Not like these radio bands that the station back for two years and then drop so the band disband and go find other successful projects ‘cos it gets too hard for them, softcocks.

CASINO RUMBLERS play the Del Plaza Hotel this Friday May 29, with Charlie Greaser and Skinwalkers; all three bands (and more) then play Punkfest at the Jubilee Hotel on Saturday May 30. www.myspace.com/casinorumblers

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