Los Hories with Hong Kong Mississippi at The Great Britain Hotel, Melbourne, June 6, 2009

Los Hories with Hong Kong Mississippi at The Great Britain Hotel, Melbourne
Gig review and photos by Music Vice contributor Danny Crombie - June 13, 2009

The Great Britain Hotel is a murky old pub with traditional bar, stinking old pool table and walls adorned with indiscriminate crap. Those same walls are reverberating with the sound of Hong Kong Mississippi (who I discovered in April) – that distinctive ramshackle drumbeat with the spiky trebly tone of the guitar up front.

As we enter the small band room I catch a glimpse of that old coffee table guitar – I love it! Tonight the room is absolutely full and the crowd is extremely interactive with the band – seems like word has spread of how eccentrically brilliant HKM are.

As with the last time I saw them, they deliver from start to finish with their unusual brand of psycho-billy swamp rock. They play songs like Suicide Train, Ditch Dog and Cowboy (Gonna Eat You Up). The southern drawl of Sasha, the singer is once again impressive and their rickety sound astonishes most of those in the room.

Hong Kong Mississippi have one hell of a sound and I’ll be bugging them to get any sort of recordings I can (a vinyl would be nice!), they’re a band with a raw energy like Eddie Cochran in Rock N’ Roll Kids and a weird vibe like the Cramps in their final song (what looks like on the setlist as haahooheehahahaeehehe or something just as brilliant).

The Great Britain Hotel, Richmond... Totally mad!

They finish up and we wait around, I’m slaughtered at a game of pool in between bands – I can sink the balls OK but my short game is horrendous, anything resembling a sport to me I can’t do.

After a bit more waiting and scoping out the sheer genius of the Great Britain Hotel, Los Hories take to the stage and blow me the fuck away. Last time I saw Hong Kong Mississippi the headliners Wrong Turn weren’t quite the best band of the night, I’d put that down to HKM being so good but tonight both bands are equally as excellent.

Los Hories open up with something that sounds a bit like I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and if you know me at all, anything resembling The Ramones is cool with me – greatest band ever. The other thing I dig is the fact it sounds a bit like Daniel Johnston singing vocals.

LH consists of three members and make one hell of a racket, the vocalist/guitarist who looks a bit like a young Billy Corgan, the drummer with what looks like a Pettibon t-shirt and the beautiful young bass player who, if you’ve followed my writings here at all, you know I have a massive fetish for chicks with guitars – my other half still hasn’t taken up the bass though I’m sad to report.

They have one hell of a sound that’s a bit like a mix between The Hives with Frank Black on vocals or ’68 Comeback or The Oblivians or any band from In The Red Records with strong grunge vocal leanings. They’ve got a classic pop thing going on but with a bit more sex than The Ronettes or The Shangri-La’s ever displayed - don’t get me wrong though Ronnie Spector was hot but she didn’t play guitar and pull of kick-ass poses whilst making people’s ears bleed.

"...the guys have one loud goddamn sound going on with constant thumping heartbeat drums and deeeeeeep but tuneful bass in the bottom of it all."

The guitar has a great angular tone which reminds me of Nicholas Arson and together the guys have one loud goddamn sound going on with constant thumping heartbeat drums and deeeeeeep but tuneful bass in the bottom of it all.

Their a tight a well honed band with great backing vocals, melodies and pop sensibilities (that’s if pop had ADD), they finish up the night with an awesome ballad and I rush to the singer to buy a CD and find out where I can see them next – tomorrow? Alright!

Links:
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