NYC's three most controversial and divisive bands are headed down under, just in time for Halloween. If Hank Wood, Crazy Spirit and Dawn of Humans manage to sneak past our notoriously cockblocking border security, it'll be interesting to see how they're received by the more PC elements of the Aussie punk scene. Earlier this year Dickies front man Leonard Graves Phillips landed himself in hot water when he punched and verbally abused an obnoxiously drunk female punter at their Brisbane show. The news spread, and at the Sydney show the next night a lot of people were pissed off, and I know of quite a few who stayed home too. It would appear that idealism and ethics aren't quite dead around here yet (as far as my position: the Sydney show was great, but yeah, he was clearly in the wrong).
Anyway, I'm cynical and flexible enough to not give much of a fuck about my moral imperfections. There's so much hype surrounding this pack of weird NY mutants that I have to see what all the fuss is about for myself. To be honest, The Hammerheads I can take or leave, too Crampsy and swampy for me. Crazy Spirit and Dawn of Humans on the other hand are something else. Demented hardcore, made by freaks for freaks, and buried within the galloping beats and always-threatening-to-spin-out-of-control looseness of both bands are some of the sickest hooks around.
Dawn of Humans are the real standout of the three. Rudimentary Peni get blind drunk and try to play covers by Die Kreuzen, Winnipeg's Kittens and Vancouver's Gus while fronted by a raving lunatic. Or something, I don't know, comparisons are stupid. And their shows look highly entertaining. If you're one of the few who hasn't already had their head bashed in by this year's scorching Slurping at the Cosmos Spine, you'd better get on board the crazy bus. Favourite tracks: "Painful Mountain", "Horse Blind" and "Fog Sclope". Great to see some NY punk headed our way, now where's my AJAX tour??
