:: Those Bloody McKennas - East Brunswick Hotel - April 2005

By: Adrian Ringin

Although the McKennas have been doing the folk-rock thing for about five years now, they have never had a residency before. In between playing their many other gigs, they have amended this oversight by playing each Thursday in April at the East Brunswick Hotel.

Those Bloody McKennas are a five-piece outfit, with brothers Phil and Ant McKenna on stings and vocals, and Damien McKenna on drums. Completing the line-up are honorary McKennas, Clare Kildae on flute and piano-accordion, plus Bill Skermer, the new boy, whose responsibilities include bass and wisecracks.

On their second residency night, it didn’t seem to matter too much that they played on borrowed gear; their own instruments being somewhere in the middle of Bass Strait, heading south to be in place for their gig in Launceston the following day.

The McKennas played two very solid sets to a receptive audience, with some older material alongside some very new songs, including a funny little piss-take written by Phil McKenna, ‘I’m Tired of Popular Culture’. Any song sledging cover bands and featuring the line “Let’s hear it for DJ s**t-for-brains” definitely has something going for it. The stand out-tracks, however, were all from their new EP ‘Time and Tide’, released late last year.

The McKennas are fond of instrumental numbers, and the tranquillity of ‘Turquoise Bay’, and the ball-busting energy of ‘Grace Emily Jam’ are both a lot of fun. In fact, the ‘Time and Tide’ material, with its mixture of hopes, dreams, dissatisfaction and yearning for change, is probably the best work the band have done so far. It is a combination of laid-back tunes, great energy, and the occasional controlled frenzy.

It isn’t too difficult to pick out their best song. The title track of ‘Time and Tide’ deals with the Siev X, a refugee-laden ship bound for Australia that sank prior to the 2001 election with great loss of life. A calm, melancholy number, it is definitely their most powerful and emotional work. Folk music is at its best when dealing with the wrongs of the world, and the McKennas have done it extremely well here.

Those Bloody McKennas put on a good, varied show, and are getting better all the time. They play a very solid and enjoyable gig, which is made a must-see by the outstanding ‘Time and Tide’.