Melbourne Ska Orchestra... A review... Go see them

[meanie]

"Wanna go see the Melbourne Ska Orchestra?" came the question. "yeah... no... who?" came the reply. Through a process of simple elimination, I worked out very quickly that they were an Aussie band, so by default they were going to be rubbish, the word Ska had sparked my interest though, so I thought bugger it (Aussie standard answer to everything is bugger it, or similar). Muggins (me) goes and get's the tickets, because gigs are cheaper here if you buy before the event, unless of course it's Hugh Cornwell and they're half price on the night!
A few days before I start trying to find out what kind of dismal support band we'll have to suffer and can't find any info at all, so I'm not sure whether to just turn up late or suffer. We decide that eating out would be a good plan and see whether anyone was actually going to attend this gig and if so, whether they were going to sacrifice themselves to the support act. The place was heaving, possibly down to it being Friday night meat raffles, people love meat raffles here. After a few beers we decide to head upstairs into the hall, which looks like the inside of some 1920's cruise liner (seriously), there are steps and tables everywhere and a lot of people. Look to the stage, it's chock full of instruments and I'm thinking, there can't possibly be support, there's no room on the stage at all..... and I was right.
I'm surprised at the buzz in the hall, everyone seems to be excited and anticipating something, me, I'm still the eternal cynic. Lights go down and I hear the horn section, amongst the gloom there's no one on stage, but this isn't a recording, then they appear like some huge musical centipede through the crowd, playing their way to the stage. I did at least do some research before the gig and I know that there can be anything up to 30 people in this band at any given time. After a few minutes they are all on stage, we're not sure if there are 22 or 23 but they're obviously happy to be here. BANG!!! it's on for one and all, we have the league of nations, from Scotland to Trinidad and they're having fun, they're 'nutty', 'rude', they have more instruments than the Rock n Roll hall of fame and they are mindblowingly good. The front man, Nicky Bomba knows how to draw an audience and everyone is going off, it's insane, even the dead would have a hard time ignoring this band. We had a band member missing (one of the three front men) until part way through the gig, due to a plane delay, he just jumped in the second he arrived without missing a beat. There were a couple of nods to the origins of Ska and their version of Message To You Rudy, but most of the set was their own stuff, some of which were jammed out for near 15 minutes per tune... and their ska version of Get Smart is awesome, check it out on You Tube
If Ska or Reggae or even Jazz is your thing, even if it's not, this is a band not to be missed, you cannot fail to enjoy it. The good news is they'll be playing in London (see attachment) in August..... go and see them if you're in the area, I promise you'll be blown away.
I have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable gigs I have ever been to and I took solace in the fact that not all Australian music is total crap. Go see them.... I dare you!

[zontar]

Grateful fer the info. I'll keep an eyeball peeled.

[ThruBeingCool]

Interesting. Sounds like they're worth seeing.

Cheers for the review.