You really have to admire the endurance of the Drones. Just back from SxSW and a quick US tour, the fiercely adored quartet is embarking on a cross-country jaunt before doing a month in Europe. Keep in mind it’s only April.

Playing the first of two sold-out nights in their hometown, The Drones were as fiery and cathartic as we’ve come to expect. The show began with Witch Hats, who were their usual seething, nightmarish selves, despite a relatively new drummer. Then came veteran folk singer Kev Carmody, who was so chatty it almost seemed like he’d talk for the entire half-hour he had "to fill", as he put it. But play he did – from the haunting ‘Moonstruck’ to a finger-picked instrumental to a rousing version of the classic protest song ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’, which he co-wrote with Paul Kelly.

Though all too familiar by now, it’s alarming to witness just how much raw power the Drones get out of a traditional four-piece rock setup. It’s also interesting to watch their personalities on display: Gareth Liddiard was shaggy yet dapper in his usual button-down shirt; bassist Fiona Kitschin kept her back to the crowd for almost the entire set; and guitarist Dan Luscombe and drummer Michael Noga were intense during the songs, but fairly cheeky in between.

The set began with three tracks from the still-fresh Havilah: the moody, gripping ‘Nail It Down’; the swaying ‘Oh My’, of which Liddiard said, “This is a song about the end of the world, which is coming to a street near you soon”; and ‘The Minotaur’, off-kilter, cutting and brought to a volcanic close that was even better than on the album. The band then reached much further into their back catalogue with ‘Six Ways to Sunday’ from their 2002 debut Here Come the Lies. Built on a fat thread of bass, it had all the precision stops and starts the Drones have mastered with Liddiard shuddering as if in mid-exorcism.


He switched to an acoustic guitar, and Luscombe to keys, for ‘Locust’, from Wait Long By The River, and both donned acoustics for Havilah’s closer ‘Your Acting’s Like the End of the World’. “Yeah, it’s the fucking Traveling Wilburys”, joked Liddiard before the song, which cast his swampy, swallowed bark into stark relief. He then called Havilah’s ‘Luck in Odd Numbers’ a “weird one”, returning to electric guitar to summon its smoky vibe and stormy climax.

A few older songs capped off the set. The band’s onetime breakthrough single ‘Shark Fin Blues’ was tackled with impressive swagger, and all four members sunk their teeth into the bluesy steamroller ‘She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For’ and the garage-y defiance of ‘I Don’t Ever Want to Change’. When the time came for an encore, it was just Liddiard on acoustic guitar and Noga on harmonica for Gala Mill’s outlaw ballad ‘Sixteen Straws’, an ambitious narrative that conjures prison and gallows for a harrowing “poor wretch’s tale”.

The full band assembled to finish the night with ‘River of Tears’, the Kev Carmody song the Drones covered for the 2007 tribute Cannot Buy My Soul. They made it foreboding and heavy, magnifying lyrics about the vicious force of “terrorists dressed in uniform/under the protection of their law” and “a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun”. Liddiard unleashed that unholy sneer of his, and the rendition was as sprawling and turbulent as any Drones original.

In all, the band played just 12 songs in 90 minutes, each averaging more than seven minutes long. Not that anybody was complaining.

by Doug Wallen