Last tuesday the Metro hosted some Australian punk legends when The Saints ’73-’78 headlined a show there. They were part of a two band bill.
First up, also hailing from Australia, was Chimers. This duo made a sound as big as a five piece band which was pretty impressive. They were loud and noisy punk, but still retained some melody in the same way that Husker Du did during the Metal Circus through New Day Rising era. Their songs were mid to fast tempo with tons of energy and it was really hard to believe so much sound was coming from only one guitar and a drum kit. They were absolutely awesome and they won over the entire audience, which I bet they’ve been doing in every city they play. If you’re able to see them play make it a point to go out of your way to catch them, and their album is also fantastic.
In their original run, which consisted of three albums and some singles, The Saints never played in America despite being hugely influential on a lot of people who would go on to form bands here in the following decades. Over the years the band saw a bunch of lineup changes, and the original singer passed away a few years ago, so a full Saints reunion isn’t possible. What was possible was for founding members Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay to form a band and play the music of The Saints from their “golden age” as a tribute to this amazing band, much like Wayne Kramer did with his MC50 shows in the years before he passed away.
Billed as The Saints ’73-’78, Kuepper and Hay are joined by Mick Harvey and Peter Oxley, with Mudhoney vocalist Mark Arm singing. You couldn’t ask for a more appropriate person to sing The Saints songs than Mark Arm, he was a perfect fit and you know The Saints were a big influence on his band. The band would be playing only music from the first three Saints albums, and boy did they sound amazing. They opened with “Swing For The Crime” and they played flawlessly. The musicians they. had step in to perform where the fallen Saints were no longer able to, filled those roles perfectly and this group of musicians were easily able to put on a 90 minute set of Saints classics that sounded every bit as good as those records did and really show off how great and ahead of their time that The Saints were. They touched on all the fan favorites from those albums and then some.
The band squeezed in a lot of songs in those 90 minutes. They didn’t spend much time talking between songs, they simply belted out one great song after the next and did it so well that you’d think these guys had been touring this material for many years. They really gelled as a unit as this was as great of a “tribute show featuring original members” as you could have ever hoped for. While we couldn’t have the full original band reunite, this was easily the next best thing and it was such a treat that these gentlemen all had the idea to perform together doing this! The band are really legends, and legends that don’t get nearly the amount of credit they rightfully deserve, but this tour hopefully will put this band on a lot more people’s radar so they’ll go check out what they missed, and what influenced many of their favorite bands.
