When a crowd full of bearded men (and the occasional bearded woman) are chanting your band’s name to the tune of AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’, you can be assured that you’re in for a good night.
Playing to their largest Melbourne crowd to date, The Beards stopped over for their Melbourne leg of their ‘The End Of The World (For Beardless People)’ Tour on Friday.
Supported by Tasmanian duo Guthrie and local trio The Peep Tempel, the crowd began to grow impatient waiting for the comedy rock act.
Guthrie delivered an impressive and heavy blues set, with vocalist Liam Guthrie telling the crowd “We’ve played with The Beards a few times and this is the first time I’ve had a fucking beard!’ Yet, by the time they finished and The Peep Temple took the stage it was obvious that the crowd had begun to get restless.
Many seemed surprised by the fact that there were two support acts, and sadly, the band’s garage-rock set essentially became background noise, as the crowd yelled and shuffled around the bar.
The wait for The Beards, who appeared two hours after the first act begun, seemed slightly unnecessary, however, the crowd was thrilled when they finally appeared, launching into their latest single ‘I’m In The Mood… For Beards’.
“Melbourne, are we feeling beardy?” asked lead singer Johann Beardraven, before bending down to rub beards with members of the crowd.
The song “Beards Across Australia Unite” was dedicated to Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police Ken Lay, for his proposal of clean-shaven police officers, with the crowd booing this proposal and bassist Nathaneil Beard ordering the crowd to “only take orders from bearded policeman.”
The most enjoyable aspect of a show by The Beards is the amount of crowd interaction that takes place, whether it be them bending down mid song to let crowd members touch their facial hair or pulling them up on to the stage.
This particular night saw one man, whom was ‘follicly challenged’, leaving the stage with a trophy for the ‘Worst Overall Beard’ as the crowd were told to “Kindly boo this man off stage” and another man (with an impressively long, ginger face-wig) was awarded a trophy for ‘Best Melbourne Beard’.
The energy felt from both the band saw the audience chanting along to every song, with particular hits being the band’s breakout hit ‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have A Beard, Then You’ve Got Two Mums” and the first track of the encore, Triple J Hottest 100 entry “You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man’.
Finishing the night with “Best Beard Out” – a tune which could easily be passed as a B-side from AC/DC or Thin Lizzy, the crowd walked away ecstatic. Before seeing The Beards live, it is easy to focus solely on the beard enthusiastic content of their lyrics and it’s not until you see them perform that you realise that the Adelaide four-piece are actually brilliant musicians.
Clearly taking influences from the likes of the aforementioned bands, their bassist even sporting the cap, Gibson SG and trademark leg movement of Angus Young. Lead vocalist Ravenbeard’s strong vocals and onstage antics are similar to that of both Jack Black of Tenacious D and Henry Wagons and whilst the lyrical content of their songs may be limited and seem repetitive after a while, if Taylor Swift can write four albums about the same thing, then why can’t The Beards?
To put it simply, a ticket to see these hairy musicians is both money and a night well spent, as they are excellent entertainers.
