John Wren and I are no longer friends. Why you might ask? A few weeks ago John asked me if I would like to do reviews for this site, movie reviews to be exact. He handed me two cases, one of them was the Live ROSE TATTOO dvd. I guess I won't losing my film review virginity just yet.
I have never heard of Rose Tattoo, I don't think you have either. These guys must have been the shit in Australia (where they are from obviously) because the crowd is HUGE. It's at least an entire professional soccer fields worth of people; packed. Apparently, this show was in 1993 to commemorate the closing of Boggo Road Jail, and as the liner notes state "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL LINE-UP REUNITED". Holy shit, the original line up. These guys supported Guns N' Roses on an Australian tour in the 80's and they have been covered by Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Keel, Nashville Pussy, Motosierra, Pud Spuke and Helen Schneider. Seven bands covering one band that shouldn't be playing songs to begin with.
As I am typing this I have the DVD playing for a second time so I could really give this a fair shot and not just base my review on my memories of the first time I watched it. If that was the case, this would just be a picture of a a drying pile of feces with an Australian flag firmly planted in the center.
"UHHHH YEAH, I'M A BAD BOY" Lyrics from 'Bad Boy for Love. This is what I am hearing right now, just moments before I dip my feather pen into ink, write my note and adjust the noose.
Anyways, the quality of this DVD is pretty good for a live set from 1993. This wasn't released on a major label nor was this band signed to one at the time it was recorded. This leaves me to believe that either the closing prison paid for this to be recorded and pressed or my copy is one of 5, which means one of the band members sold his copy on Ebay. PAL Format DVDm no one care about this outside of Australia, well no one besides the 7 bands previously mentioned. But, since no one cares about them it is a moot point. Picture wise; the camera work is just above student and before intermediate, on par for a band that sounds like a 5th generation AC/DC...aka my will to live has ceased to exist.
On to the band members themselves; Rose Tattoo is a five piece led by Angry Anderson. "Angry" (birth name) looks like superintendent Andrews from Alien 3 except he's wearing a sleeveless white painters jumpsuit and a string necklace with a big circular pendant. He could have at least sprung for vending machine gold. We know know that gold, especially gold flake not only looks great but is a good investment as well. This type of jewelry is used to summon the bar rock gods. Plus it matches "Slide" Guitar player; Peter Wells gold dragon design on his white guitar. He is one of two guitar players, the other; Mick Cocks is the rhythm guitarist. This is the first time I have ever heard of the guitar players being defined as "Slide and Rhythm", so I am guessing the "Slide"one is lead. They claim to have a bass player but I couldn't hear him the entire set. Rose Tattoo are liars. Based on this and other previous data; all people in Australia lie.
The sound quality is actually very good, everything is clear (minus the non-existent bass). Vocals are just a bit too loud for my taste; then again we are talking about a bar band, vocals are always way too loud. Two tracks have the words "Rock 'n' Roll" and three have "boy/boys"in the title. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what this is all about. Lastly, they cover The Rolling Stones "Street Fighting Man". Wanna know how it sounds? Listen to the original. All in all this was a hilariously bad venture, suicidal even. I hope John Wren's house burns down from the bags of flaming feces and semen that will be left ton his doorstep starting tomorrow.
Unless you're into uninspiring music, getting raped or having to eat some
Staff Rating
0.10/5
User Rating
0/5
It isn't really a movie though.
BAND SUCKS