The Galvatrons Review

By Tessa Muskett

As another University year draws to an end, the End Of Exams party hit UniBar at just the right time, providing a chance to celebrate the end of all night stints for purposes other than partying.

UniBar Band comp winners of ‘08, The Jacket warmed up the crowd tonight with an entertaining life set that was professional and controlled in its grunge rocker execution.

The Galvatrons are unique because their sound so strongly recreates the big electronica and rock sounds of the eighties that it has made people who don’t remember this music from the first time around feel nostalgic for it (hitting on a current trend in Australian music but taking it to the extreme). This makes the theme of their first single, ‘When We Were Kids’ particularly fitting. Their sound is ambitious, with the musical intro being reminiscent of a similarly ambitious project, Angels and Airwaves, as self-confessed/proclaimed by front man Tom DeLonge. They pull off this big pop-rock sing-along sound by delivering it with absolute conviction and showmanship.

The Galvatrons were in town supporting Def Leppard. The crowd at those shows, in their loyal passion and consequent excitement for the main act may have dismissed The Galvatrons as teen imitators of history but the UniBar crowd is arguably more contemporary pop-culturally aware and more of the self aware target audience. Kids these days make music for the other kids, not their Dads or scary Uncles from small towns with moustaches that rival the handlebars on their bikes’.

Synths, lazers and gravity defying hairstyles are some of the outer space influenced trends from the eighties that The Galvatrons have embraced and modernised with today’s technology. This show was part of the Robots Are Cool Tour a tongue-in-cheek title that is both apt and timely.