Grong Grong - The Anal UFO Tour

This is a weird band. I can't get my head around them to be honest.

So Grong Grong were around years ago playing and scaring the town folk of Adelaide. During their absence they played in other groups fighting the mainstream. Grong Grong played a few reunion shows last year with good reports so i'm excited about seeing more of them. Good supports for the shows too - ZOND are also playing at the Old Bar show.

I haven't got the CD/DVD yet but i hear it really goes beyond the usual lazy re-issue. The DVD is chocked with interviews and live footage that none or most GG fans had ever seen before. I know of a couple of people travelling south from Sydney and Brisbane for this which is a sign that this band is better than this poster would suggest. Also worth mentioning for those who like to boogie for the Old Bar show, Mr. TJ Honeysuckle is Dj'ing. He's assured me to take a good dig through his old records and find the filthiest mess he can. I look forward to seeing this.

Grong Grong - The Anal UFO Tour

This is a weird band. I can't get my head around them to be honest.

So Grong Grong were around years ago playing and scaring the town folk of Adelaide. During their absence they played in other groups fighting the mainstream. Grong Grong played a few reunion shows last year with good reports so i'm excited about seeing more of them. Good supports for the shows too - ZOND are also playing at the Old Bar show.

I haven't got the CD/DVD yet but i hear it really goes beyond the usual lazy re-issue. The DVD is chocked with interviews and live footage that none or most GG fans had ever seen before. I know of a couple of people travelling south from Sydney and Brisbane for this which is a sign that this band is better than this poster would suggest. Also worth mentioning for those who like to boogie for the Old Bar show, Mr. TJ Honeysuckle is Dj'ing. He's assured me to take a good dig through his old records and find the filthiest mess he can. I look forward to seeing this.

So Grong, and yet so right.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?
Anyway, I'm either losing my touch or getting much more selective. This is another week where one show stands out- another visit by mighty back-from-the-grave Adeladians Grong Grong.

It's all there on that rather fine poster, I guess, expect for the fact that Saturday's Old Bar show now also includes ZOND as well as the Stabs as supports. And, er, me, DJing afterwards, from 1 til 3.00am, when I will be playing the most unholy mess of filthy noise I can dig out. Do come.

Return of the Grong.

How sweet it is to be able to post this:

Yes, they had to blow out the Missing Link in-store, and yes, the show has changed from the East to the Tote. Fingers crossed there will be no more cancellations or changes, and the rest of the tour will go ahead as planned.
Here's what someone said recently:
They were a beast of a band in many ways and were utterly unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Personnel: Dave Taskas on bass, skinny as a stick with a plastic voodoo skull dangling from his tuning pegs. Up the back was George Klestinis, who looked like a 4/4 rockabilly cat but played a loping, skipping beat of the band's own invention. Stage right was Charlie Tolnay, hunched and sweating over a Fender Jaguar, with the air of a moonlighting bikie about him and always with a cigarette in his gob. And up front, Charlie’s step-brother Michael Farkas aka Grong. His usual look was a black op-shop suit and ski mask or vinyl fetish hood, topped off with either a Stetson or a top hat. The suit was often accessorised with slabs of steak gaffer taped to the lapels. He also wielded a battered sax at irregular intervals.
This is what you were faced with before they'd even played a note. Grong Grong may not have been virtuosos, but they could certainly play, and a recent creeping tendency to remember them as mere noisemongers completely misses the point. They had a sound that was completely their own. It was defined by that aforementioned lolloping beat, Charlie’s unique brittle guitar sound and the holy roaring horror of that voice that was laid over the top of it all. Live, there was a gut level impact to them that was unforgettable.
Their own songs were called things like ‘Japanese Train Driver’, ‘Club Grotesque’, ‘Louie The Fly’, ‘Hunka Chunka’ and ‘Meat Axe’, and they were always happy to throw in a few well-chosen covers as well: The Stooges' ‘Loose’, ‘Lookin' At You’ by the MC5, ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ by The Meteors and, famously, an extended jam on Flipper's ‘Sex Bomb’. My favorite quote about them is from Byron Coley in Forced Exposure magazine: “…all kindsa spectral rattles just float in the air, while all sortsa shit-hronk throbs underneath.”

Do not miss them.