Mildly doped up on Codral™, I experienced The Chats at a sold out show at The Brightside on Friday night. The gig left with more questions than answers.
Firstly though, I want to confirm: yes, The Chats are a real band.
And yes, they have more songs than their viral hit ‘Smoko’. But the real question is, are they any good?
That is a little tougher to answer, as The Chats aren’t producing music with depth. These are songs about how many ‘pingers’ you take.
These are songs about how you shouldn’t buy drugs off the internet and then have them delivered to your home address. A cautionary tale the band said. The type of music they are making is what I would call ‘Aus-ploitation‘.
From ‘Pub Feed’ to ‘Mum Stole My Darts’ the majority of their songs are inspired by and filled with references to Australian ‘bogan’ sub-culture and slang. But they aren’t derogatory. The best thing about them is that they celebrate it, which is why I think more people connect with the songs. Who hasn’t gone to the pub on a Friday evening for a cheap feed and a beer?
For the live show, it is exactly what you would imagine. High energy, quick fire tracks and a sweaty mosh. For me, the definition of a purely fun gig.
The band even threw in a cover of KISS’s ‘Rock And Roll All Nite’.
A party song about getting loose and a little munted. In retrospect, a pretty obvious choice when you consider what The Chats are trying to emulate in their music.
The night also saw the continued death of the now infamous and largely despised ‘shoey’. Once a cornerstone of the Australian music scene, it is now a pariah. Eamon had this to say when the crowd politely asked him to drink a beer from his sweaty shoe:
“We’re not the f**kin’ Dune Rats, and it’s not f**kin 2014.”
Well said.
As I walked out the door, wishing I had brought a spare shirt to replace the one clinging to my sweaty body, I still had a few questions.
Is the blazing red mullet a big punk rock middle finger to modern ‘cool’, or does lead singer Eamon legitmately think it is a good look?
When asked if they had had ‘The Clap’ before, did the people in crowd realise it is slang for gonorrhoea? I hope not, because one guy raised both hands when asked if anyone had had it twice.
Was the orange tape on the back of the guitars spelling out “F**K YOU” meant to hurt my already low self esteem?
In the end, I still am not sure.
But it’s best not to overthink The Chats, you should just embrace the mild insanity. I can confirm you will have more fun that way.
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