Spiderbait

with Little Red

At 15 years young, Spiderbait is itself in somewhat better shape. Their most recent sucsess bieng their first number one Australian single of an already illustrious career with their high-octane cover of Huddie Ledbetter's "Black Betty". The album it announced, Tonight Alright, went on to earn platinum sales status, pushing the group's collective sales of their six albums towards the 500,000 mark.

The extensive touring that followed the hit single and album reminded anyone who saw a show on the 2004 jaunt that whether controlling the main stage at the Big Day Out or creating chaos in a packed club, Spiderbait remained a blistering live proposition: Kram flailing at his drums, Janet resolutely slamming her bass and Whitt coaxing out waves of noise from his guitar.

Along side them are reliative new comers Little Red, screaming to major sucsess in 2008 with their debut ‘Listen to little red’ Many tracks seeing high rotation of triple J and the like. When did we start saying "I'm going to go see that band tonight"? Was it when PeteTownsend smashed his guitar? When GG Allin smashed his face on the stage? When AC/DC inflated Rosie? Who can say, but one thing's for sure - somewhere along the way, listening became secondary to looking.

In the case of Melbourne's Little Red, however, people would filter out of their early shows, raving about the harmonies, the guitar tones, the whip-crack drums. Sure, the suits were cute, and the smiles were mile-wide, but here was a band who had so expertly cultivated their sound that you just wanted to shut your eyes and let it wash all over you.

It's fitting, then, that their debut long player is called Listen To Little Red. It's as much a throwback to the days of naively didactic album titles as it is a command: once that bouncing bassline of Coca Cola hooks you in, you won't be able to do anything but listen (and maybe, dance).

Since they first appeared on the live circuit a year or so ago, Little Red have played at nearly every music festival in the country, and with just about every band you'd care to mention, but most of us were waiting patiently for the day when we could listen to Little Red in the comfort of our own conversation pits.

Supports to be announced at a later date

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