On a damp and squishy Sydney Friday night (what’s with all the rain lately?), all wet roads led to the mighty Annandale Hotel for regular Aussie tourist Nick Oliveri, fronting the latest incarnation of his no-frills pure rock n’ roll dynamo Mondo Generator. Australia is the first stop on their world tour to promote new album Time To Destroy, out next month (with Dave Grohl on drums by the way).
Not surprisingly, Nick’s mates and ‘Gong rockers Hytest were the main support. Nick sang with Hytest last year when they supported Tumbleweed at their astounding show at Waves, and has since asked Luke and Mick from Hytest to play in Mondo Generator on tour here and in Europe – go Wollongong!
After the frantic balls-to-the-wall blast of ‘Here We Come’ and ‘Fuck You I’m Free’, it was time for one of the new songs – the punishing ‘Invisible Like The Sky’, and we loved every second of its pulverising power. Also new songs ‘Burn The Bridge’ and ‘This Isn’t Love’ were typically cool Mondo Generator punk/stoner ditties that only served to raise the anticipation for the new album. Seriously, I want it now.
The crazed ‘Like You Want’ and ‘All The Way Down’ featured Nick in typically manic form; he is still a right nut. A beefed up ‘Gonna Leave You’ from Nick’s old band Queens Of The Stone Age was much better than the original (sorry Josh Homme, it was). But the one song that gave us all a surging rock orgasm was from Nick’s other old band Kyuss. It was the ultra-groovy ‘Green Machine’ – holy fuck that was amazing, a shuddering piece of rock that sent the Annandale crowd into fits of sheer fucken ecstasy.
The hour of relentless party rock was wrapped up with an almighty Queens Of The Stone Age double – the catchy riffage of ‘You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire’ and the seismic blast of ‘Tension Head’. T’was a perfect night of rock n’ roll goodness from Mondo Generator. What more could you ask for?
