Seminal Australian punk-rock band The Meanies will bring their raucous live show back to Brisbane this June.
The Meanies rose to prominence in the late '80s and early ‘90s with their enthusiastic brand of frenetic, unkempt punk music. Australian audiences responded well to the unpretentious four-piece, and the cult status the band enjoyed in Melbourne soon expanded to the rest of Australia and beyond. Bassist Wally Kempton attributes the longevity of The Meanies to the spirit of fun that has stayed with the band since its inception.
“We just all met around the traps, there was never a grand plan and we were lucky because whatever we were doing tended to work and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It got to a stage where the amount of work we were doing was too much and we stopped playing for about three years. The very reason we got together was for fun, and for the last 15 years it's been fun to just get together and jam, but it’s not necessarily a career path as it accidentally became in the early ‘90s.
“We didn't take ourselves too seriously and never will. None of us had any stupid airs or graces; we were just four ugly kids from the suburbs that people could relate to. We were always very easy to approach as well, regardless of how big or small we were as a band, we were never too big for our boots.”
Wally says that time has not diminished the group's ability to bring the punk spirit, and like a fine wine, The Meanies are only getting better with age.
“It won’t be as nuts as it used to be. Link cut his forearm rather badly at the last Melbourne show that we played, so I think he might finally realise that’s not necessarily a wise thing to do. He ended up having 13 stitches, some internal and some external.
“I'm hoping lots of old bastards come out of the woodwork and we end up with a massive crowd. With my humility hat on, I can honestly tell you that we are a much better band than we ever were. It's louder, it's faster, it's harder, and even the singing is better. We will definitely still jump around.”
The Meanies play 4ZZZ’s Rumble Rock Wrestling at the Arena Sunday June 9.
