:: The Dairy Brothers - The Green Room, Melbourne - December 2006

By: Andrew Crosbie

For the entirety of their set my face was fused into what can only be described as a massive grin, and I’d never even heard of The Dairy Brothers. This show at The Green Room was the last of a four-date mini-tour of Melbourne in preparation for their EP launch tour in February 2007. I imagined The Dairy Brothers as being two brothers with a mellow acoustic vibe similar to that of the Finn brothers….I was wrong.

Joel, Tom, Josh and Michael hail from Adelaide and their sound, although not completely original, is a breath of fresh air into what can be a slightly stale Australian rock scene. They combine the humorous lyrical stylings of Tenacious D with the driving piano of earlier Ben Folds and a guitar sound that shifts through pinnacle elements of rock from the past thirty years, giving a performance that will keep you in a well humoured and merry state of being.

When they walked onto the stage I wasn’t sure what grabbed my attention first. It could have been vocal/keyboardist Joel’s striking resemblance to Jack Black. It could have been the very old school bass guitar that Tom was wielding, or it could have been that he was also dressed in a cow suit. It was set up to be a good night.

The sheer energy exerted on stage by these men has to be seen for justice to be done to it. I can only try to convey their presence by saying that each them could easily and adequately fill the job for any rock band needing a forward, dancing, crowd-revving, stage diving, hair shaking, face melting front man.

From belting power ballads to pure rock the Dairy Brothers provide a good variety of songs that are sure to turn the heads of anyone within earshot. Their lyrical wit and occasional randomness can be appreciated with songs like beer drinking anthem “Wanker version of yourself” or “Grapefruit” which as the name suggests is a song about grapefruit. With the grinning power of this audience fuelling The Dairy Brothers’ awesome performance, I can only imagine what they would be capable of delivering to a crowd of hundreds even thousands when they play at the Big Day Out early next year.

Possibly one of the most entertaining parts of the night was the addition of a leaf blower to their guitar solo of their last song. It really gave that often overused “wind blown hair” look a new lease for public performance. I can say with certainty that I will be in the very front row the next time The Dairy Brothers grace Melbourne with their very large presence. In their own words “The Dairy Brothers are quite good”.