It was only less than two years ago that we saw punk legends Misfits down in Australia so it was a surprise that despite no new album since that time that the band returned dowunder. However this time around there was something special planned for the fans, a live performance of the entire albums of "Earth A.D." and "Static Age", two classic albums that represent some of the best that Misfits have to offer.
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Opening up the night were local punks Hope Street and Scalphunter, the latter a regular on the local scene and who have had the opportunity to lay down with some of the biggest and best of them as of late. But the fans were here to see the legends that are Misfits and they swiftly came on earlier than expected. Kicking off with the "Static Age" album, the 3 piece of Jerry Only on bass, Eric Arce on the skins and Jerry II on guitar sounded on fire as they belted out the entire album in a scorching time.
No time was wasted as the title track led the way with other great songs following including "Some Kinda Hate", "We Are 138" and "Attitude" which is a personal favorite of mine and which was also covered by Guns N'Roses back in 1993. Mixed in amongst the 2 albums were plenty more hit songs like "Where Eagles Dare" and "Saturday Night" which brought the crowd to a roar but the faster "Earth A.D." stuff really tilted the fans to the brink of destruction as the moshpit moved harder in time with the more aggressive tone of the vintage songs.
Jerry Only sounded even better than last time as he never faulted in his vocal delivery, smashing his bass lines and giving the crowd nothing but track after track with very little talking inbetween. The amount of songs that made it onto the set is nothing short of astounding despite most being fairly short but it's really more of it coming down to a back catalogue that is filled with memorable songs that have been a part of many people's musical lives in one form or another. While the theatrics on stage with the band in full costume is a nice gimmick matching the horror punk style of the band's music, it's really the songs and the performance that highlight what a massive influence this band has had on punk rock and rock and metal in general over the years. As the show closer that is "Halloween" ended the night, we yet again see why Misfits belongs in the catagory of legends of rock.
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Review by Andrew "Schizodeluxe" Massie
Photos by The Buffman
