Our Bands Invade The Big Apple

Author: Phillip Coorey

It is being billed as “The Aussie Invasion” and yesterday it reached the basement of a small Australian bar in snowbound New York. A clutch of Australia’s hottest bands – The Living End, The Vines, Jet and Neon – hit the frozen Big Apple as part of a 30-day, sell-out joint US tour.

Downstairs in Eight-Mile Creek, a Soho bar run by Whyalla-boys-done-good Frank and Will Ford, all bands but Neon treated a small gathering of invited guests to a few songs.

During the acoustic sets, Jet played their hit Are You Going To Be My Girl, which is huge in America thanks to Apple Computers using it in advertisements to promote their new range of I-Pods. “Would’ve been nice if they gave us an I-Pod,” grizzled Nick Cester of Jet.

Apart from the freezing weather, bad food and dearth of decent coffee, Living End drummer Andy Strachan said the tour had been great and doing it with the other bands was a great concept. “It’s kind of like the McDonalds value meal,” he opined.

Band members did not know each other well before they hit the road in their three-bus convoy. “Backstage we’re all mates and getting to know each other well,” Andy said. “They’re just good people,” he said.