The show was kicked off in fantastic thrash style by Melbourne’s own Desecrator. They literally tore through their set and getting the crowd pumped as best they could. Quickly blazing through tracks like “Balancing on a Blade” and “Brothers In Arms” and closing out with Diamond Head classic “Am I Evil”. These guys were great and really set the tone for the whole gig with their frantic old school style thrash metal.
Next was another local band Elm Street who while they were great and on their on would have been fantastic but their more traditional NWOBHM influenced style of metal just seemed like they were in slow motion compared to Desecrator. Highlight of their set was the track “Elm Street Children” but it just left me a little bored on a whole and I wasn’t disappointed when their set was finished.
I was not prepared for what came next. Abigail are from Japan and that’s all I knew about them. They came out on stage and started to play and completely blew me away. These guys thrash hard and fast. Very similar to first wave black metal like Venom and Hellhammer, extremely raw almost verging on punk. Also they were throwing out song titles like “Satanik Metal Fucking Hell”, “Attack With Spell”, “Bitch, Your My Angel” and “Teen Age Metal Fuck” there seems to be a lot of Engrish going on with the titles and lyrics but musically they were great and the crowd ate it up. I have to admit that I was instantly won over and now am a huge fan of them. They had such a presence of stage and they just were such fun to watch and listen to.
Now it was time for Tankard. The classic German thrashers rushed the stage and flew into the classic “Zombie Attack” and the crowd exploded. The band was in top form, the beer was flowing and the crowd was raging. Considering this was Tankards first time in Australia the reception they received was almost like they were locals. I guess that when 90% of your subject matter is beer and the drinking of said beer I guess your preaching to the choir when it come to Australians.
They also played 2 new songs from the new album “R.I.B.”: “Rest In Beer” and “Fooled By Your Guts” which were extremely well received by the crowd. Other Highlights of the show were “Stay Thirsty”, “Maniac Forces”, “Die With A Beer In Your Hands”, “Space Beer”, “Chemical Invasion” and “Alien”. The band bough the energy on stage with front man Gerre running and spinning all around the stage like a madman and Guitarist Andy and Bassist Frank swapping spots on stage with Gerre weaving around them.
The only thing that was weird about the set was when Gerre said that Australia won the world cup and held up the Australian flag. The entire crowd just seemed confused by this because I’m assuming the everyone was either waiting for them to talk about Germany or wasn’t even watching the soccer. But that one thing as side the band was perfect and they closed with a massive sing along version of their classic “Empty Tankard”. Tankards entire set was flawless and the crowd loved every single minute of it. It took them over 30 years to get to Australia and lets hope its not another 30 for them to return