STATOZ QUO with ALMOST SLAYED
Saturday 29 October, 2011
Boulevard Tavern, Joondalup

By Shane Pinnegar

Who’s seen the movie “Slade In Flame”? The pop glamsters are on a tiny stage in a grubby club, belting out the kind of raw 60’s/70’s R&B that makes a mockery of their reputation as bubblegum band, as they win the rough crowd over.

Sat night at Joondalup’s Boulevard Tavern was a very similar scene – right down to the mirrored top hat and stack heeled glitter boots. The main difference of course was the Black Label Society and Foo Fighters t-shirts sported by the crowd, and that in itself is testament to Slade’s enduring legacy.

Almost Slayed delivered a visual and audio feast – rough, raw and ready, and singer Danny does the most remarkable Noddy Holder impersonation this reviewer has ever heard!

They ripped through ‘Cum On Feeel The Noize’, ‘Far Far Away’, “The Slade Alive” version of John Sebastian’s ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ (a favourite of mine I must admit), ‘My Friend Sam’ and of course ‘Mama We’re All Crazee Now’, as well as many more classics, all rendered lovingly and loudly, finishing with a seasonally early ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ and a raucous ‘Get Down n Get With It’.

By contrast, Statoz Quo started slowly and singularly failed to convince at any point despite high expectations. Insecure between stage banter and the lack of the one thing which makes Quo Quo – unshakable foundations and a rock solid cohesiveness –meant by halfway through their set most of the crowd had decamped to the courtyard or left the premises completely, leaving only a handful in the band room.

Best of the bunch were ‘Don’t Waste My Time’, ‘Aint Gonna Work No More’ and ‘Again Again’, but by the time a pretty tight ‘Rain’ came along, it was all too little too late.