Runnin' Wild In Montreal.. A Night With Airbourne!

It was my 29th birthday this past Thursday. I've never really made much of a fuss on the anniversary of my arrival on this beautiful planet, but this time there was something new and exciting happening. After years of waiting for a new AC/DC album that would blow my ears out, along came their Australian reincarnates.. Airbourne!

 

Listening to their international debut Runnin' Wild is like the adrenaline rush you get from a kick in the junk with a mouthful of beer while free-falling at 50,000 feet! Songs like "Stand Up For Rock And Roll" and the title-track serve as the gospel according to Airbourne. Gettin' drunk, havin’ fun and rockin' out!

When I asked lead guitarist and singer Joel O'Keeffe to describe an Airbourne show in one sentence, he said, "You walk in the door, you get drunk, the band comes on, you get deaf and then you get more drunk, then hopefully you pick up a chick or if you're a chick you pick up a bloak and then hopefully you go home and you get laid and you wake up the next day and you can't remember anything 'cause you had the best night ever and whoever you're lying next to can't remember their name either.. but hopefully you remember our band name, but if you don't well, you still had a good night so that's the main thing."

 

As it turns out, duty called and I had to work until midnight on the eve of Airbourne's world tour stop at Les Saints in Montreal. The really small price I pay to do what I love for a living. Since Airbourne had won my vote for "Best New Band in 2008", I did what any fan would do and still tried to make it to the show after work. By the time I had reached the venue, the crowd had cleared along with the band's gear, which was already being piled into the 12-foot trailer that was hitched to the big white 12-seater Dodge Sprinter van they purchased in their newly adopted home of New Jersey. Contrary to what you’d expect from a band that’s opened up for the Rolling Stones and Motley Crue down under, they weren’t traveling in the best of conditions. Their van had already broken down while driving through Georgia and constantly leaked on rainy days whereas the trailer bore dents from the band’s BB gun target practice sessions between gigs.

 

I went through the front door and spotted their tour manager/guitar tech Travis who was in the process of text messaging me the bad news that the show had already finished. Nonetheless, I still bought a t-shirt from the merch table and had a quick chat with Travis about the gig before he escorted me backstage. A tiny room with a couple of couches and a big cooler packed with ice cold beer, Joel's newly-opened bottle of JD and the rest of the band's stuff strewn across the landscape. Also in the room were bassist Justin Street, guitarist David Roads (or Roadsie), drummer Ryan O'Keeffe (Joel's younger brother) and a couple of the band's old friends from Melbourne who had been living in Montreal for the past 6 months. I asked them how the show went and more specifically what the crowd was like. The overall response was better than I expected.  According to Justin, they felt much more welcome and well-received by the crowds in Canada compared to the U.S. Ryan confirmed, stating that they played to an energetic sold-out crowd at Les Saints that night.

 

After finally tracking down Joel, who was in the club talking to some fans, we headed out the back door to the van. Ryan heard it was my birthday and quickly scrambled for a plastic cup and said, "You have to try this mate! It’s my gift to you on your birthday." Cracking the seal on a brand new bottle of scotch, he poured some into the cup and presented it to me along with a story in his best aficionado-sounding accent. "Glenmorangie's single malt scotch whiskey from the Highlands of Scotland aged 18 years and perfected by the Sixteen Men of Tain. At 120-dollars a bottle, you haven't tasted scotch until you've tried Glenmorangie." He was right.

 

Ryan took a swig from the bottle and poured me another, after which we climbed into the van. The band, their friends Sean and Victoria, crew members Eric (lighting), Nick (sound) and local aid Meghan (merch) along with Travis and myself squeezed in for the 2 minute ride to the Days Inn on Hotel-de-Ville where we unloaded the band's luggage, and more specifically their lives, packed tightly into wheeled Kookaburra bags. I noticed that all four band mates had the same golf bag-sized Kookaburras and immediately asked them of the origin and significance. I learned that Kookaburras are a type of kingfisher bird native to Australia and New Guinea best known for their unmistakable call, which is uncannily loud, echoing human laughter. The Kookaburra sporting company is like the Nike of the cricket world in Australia and other countries that consider it a national sport. We walked into the lobby and waited for Travis to settle the room situation. After handing out the room keys, I accompanied the O'Keeffe brothers to their room, carrying a Kookaburra and a gym bag into the elevator.

 

Ryan snuck into the bathroom while Joel shuffled through his brother's bag for a shirt to change into. "I'm taking Ryan's favorite shirt,” he said. “Watch his face when he comes out." Strategically placing himself in front of the bathroom door in a superhero stance as his younger brother exited, Joel asked "How do you like my shirt mate?"

 

His younger brother replied unphased, "Looks f**kin' great!"

 

There was a knock at the door. It was Justin and Roadsie rounding up the troops to head out for drinks down the street. The party spot was Montreal’s Foufounes Electriques where Joel spent most of the night chatting with one of the opening band members, Roadsie disappeared while Justin, Travis, the crew and I hung out on the main floor. At one point, we all decided to take a peek upstairs, where the room was packed with people dancing to monotonous hip-hop/dance music. That was enough to send Ryan, who was fighting a cold, back to the hotel for the night. They had to be up and out the door by 10am the next morning on the road to the next gig in Ottawa.

 

This is how Airbourne have been doing it every day on the road for the last 3 months and they'll keep on doing it at least until Christmas. According to Joel, the more time they spent on the road, the more they realized that the things they once thought were crazy or weird just seemed normal.

 

He recalls, "You can't get fireworks in Australia and you can't get BB guns in Australia either, so we went out and got BB guns and fireworks and beer all from the one shop. Its kind of weird that you can sell all that in one shop.. guns, explosives and beer! So, we went out and started mucking around with it at the hotel. I can't remember what town it was in, but the cops showed up and we're just in the middle of lighting all these fireworks and shooting stuff with our guns and we were attacking the other band's van with their stuff. Then the cops rolled up and we had to just run 'cause we could get in serious trouble 'cause we're not American citizens, so we had to run away. We didn't want to get deported, so we ran to hide in the hotel and the cops were circling the hotel looking for us and we're just hiding in our rooms with the doors locked and the lights turned off just waiting to get caught with our guns still pointed at the door! You try to make your own fun you know, 'cause after a gig, if there's nowhere to go and no clubs open all night or nowhere to drink afterwards you just gotta go make your own fun, so we've been having a lot of fun doing that."

 

And ‘fun’ is what Airbourne is all about. Pumping out balls-to-the-wall rock n’ roll like no one else in their age group (20-24), it’s rather refreshing to hear a new band on the scene that doesn’t care about image as much as their dedication to keeping the rock ‘n roll vibe alive. Making sure that their fans get to rock and rock HARD is Airbourne’s creed. With the success they had achieved in Australia, they could have easily embarked on a world tour playing arenas as an opening act, but opted to headline small clubs for a meager price instead, thus laying the groundwork for a legendary band in the making. Front man Joel O’Keeffe made it abundantly clear that they didn’t want anything to be handed to them; rather they felt they should earn it by paying their dues like most of the greats. Much like many people now in their 40s and 50s can say they saw legendary bands like Led Zeppelin or AC/DC for a few dollars back when nobody knew who they were, the Airbourne generation will one day tell their tale of an unforgettably deafening and sweat-soaked show at Les Saints for only $15. With all the crap that’s being pumped into iPods these days, we desperately need a hard-working band like Airbourne to come along and establish a following that will last for decades to come. God knows we don’t need another one-hit wonder.

 

Pick up Runnin’ Wild in stores or on iTunes and check out some of Airbourne’s videos and preview the album at www.myspace.com/airbourne.

 

Cheers digger!