Photo: Justin Ma

Dormant for months, my mullet radar detects an absolute beauty as scores of gogans (as in ‘goth bogans’), emogans (yep, you guessed), metalheads and punks slowly populate The Hi-Fi. Local underground identity JJ Speedball kicks off the proceedings with his honest, meat-and-potatoes punk rock, shortly followed by Gold Coasters The Wrath, who crank up the volume and set the vibe for the night with their chugga-chugga riffs and pummelling drums.

Seeing self-proclaimed ‘Helsinki Vampires’ The 69 Eyes live is a guilty pleasure akin to re-watching The Lost Boys (also – hardly coincidentally – one of the songs the Finnish rockers play tonight). Sonically falling strictly midway between Vision Thing-era Sisters Of Mercy and Mötley Crüe, the quintet authoritatively exercise nearly every cock-rock cliché in the book (culminating with drummer Jussi 69 incorporating his sticks in a priceless wanking gesture) while lanky vocalist Jyrki 69 – an embodiment of ‘80s rock shtick replete with shades and leather pants – presides over the enthusiastic gathering like an Alice Cooper/Ian Astbury hybrid. Never Say Die, Perfect Skin and the late Crow star tribute Brandon Lee are serviceable highlights from the set spanning the band’s 20 year career, yet the token goth/glam palette soon proves one-dimensional and I take off before the show’s over in the knowledge someone had already released the bats – long, long ago.

DENIS SEMCHENKO

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