From: francis@cs.adelaide.edu.au (Francis Vaughan)
Newsgroups: aus.music
Subject: Denis Tek plays Adelaide
Date: 1 Oct 92 04:51:20 GMT
Reply-To: francis@cs.adelaide.edu.au
Organization: Adelaide Univerity, Computer Science
NNTP-Posting-Host: heruka.cs.adelaide.edu.au


Last night Denis Tek played a gig at "The Venue."  This was
compulsory attendance for anyone who cares at all about the
heritage of OZ rock.

The Venue is not my favorite place for a gig by any means, but it
pretty well suited the music.   The crowd were disappointingly
thin and many I suspect did not really understand what they were
coming to see.   I think it only dawned on them as the night
progressed that they were witnessing something special.  There
were quite a few die hard Birdman fans there (myself included) but
not as many as one would have hoped for.  A cold Wednesday night
in one of the lesser venues is not the best start.


Denis started almost exactly one hour later than stated, at 11:30
and opened up with "Burn my eye."  I was in heaven.  Seriously,
since I never saw Radio Birdman play I was resigned to never
hearing this music played live.  But there up on stage, was Denis
Tek and Chris Masurak (sp?) blasting out some of the greatest
music ever to be produced in this country, if not the world.  The
influence and importance of Radio Birdman on the music of the 70's
80's and 90's should not be dismissed.  It seems that we are now
hearing the echos of Birdman reverberating from Seattle, and
few understand the roots.

The play list was pretty well a 50/50 mix of Birdman and new Denis
Tek songs.  They played I:94, Man with golden hemet, Decent into
the Malstrom, TV eye, Hand of Law - these I remember, others too
plus at least one other Stooges song.

I am not familiar with the new Denis Tek songs (I'll by the CD
next week) but overall they have a lot of the flavour of the songs
he wrote with Radio Birdman.  Perhaps they lack a bit of the full
power edge that Birdman had, but that may be a reflection of their
youth, Birdman honed their songs over a long period of playing
live, I suspect these songs have not seen much live exposure.

Denis still seems to have the energy and edge, burning up the
stage with enormous zeal.  Chris Masurak was comparitivly
restrained but still delivered a great sound and superb playing.

The gig went for just under two hours, they only intended playing
one encore but were brought back on stage for a second after the
"time to go home" music started playing on the PA.  There was a a
continual derisive din from the crowd for about five minutes after
this music started and nobody moved.  Finally the second encore
began, with Denis announcing that they "never" came back twice. 
They finished the show with a frenetic version of TV eye, which
pleased a lot of punters, but without Rob Youngers vocals it was a
bit thin.  Personally I wanted to hear "Dark Surprise."  Denis'
vocals were very good on just about every song except TV eye.

Overall, if you get the chance, do not miss the chance to see this
show.  It is pehaps unfortunate that Denis is living under the
shadow of Birdman, but he seems to accept that, delivering a good
mix of old and new with energy and commitment.  

The only question left is whether Rob Younger, Pip Hoyle, Warwick
Gilbert et al could somehow be convinced to give it a whirl again.
Just for old times sake.  Denis and Chris showed quite
convincingly that, in Denis' words, "under the ashes, the coals
glow ready to burn again."  If they did burn once more it would be
something to remember for the rest of your life.


					Francis Vaughan