Does It Offend You Yeah? – Oxford Arts Factory 01/10/08

Down the stairs I go, heading towards a dimly lit room ¾ full of black skinny jeans.

Two disgusting beers later and the crowd around me all started pulling out wooden spoons. I did some investigations and found out the people clutching said spoons were at the show for the support act; Grafton primary, a tribute to there song “I can cook”. I asked a few of these people there thoughts on Does It Offend You Yeah? and some people had not even heard of them… this would change by the end of the night. Grafton primary played about six songs and I must say while entertaining, they lacked variety in their sound. The three keyboards and the Gibson keytair were a handy distraction though, as everyone on stage always looked very busy. Had the night concluded at the end of their set most people would have been satisfied; I wasn’t; but luckily for me Does it offend you yeah were only minutes away from there first ever Sydney show, a show I will not soon be forgetting.

The curtains roll back off the stage to reveal this awesome four piece band to the exited Sydney crowd for the first time. Even with a guitarist, who had to sit down the whole show, due to a broken leg sustained on stage in L.A., they have a stage presence that engulfed the entire room. Like a school of fish the people around me moved as one towards the stage just to get a little closer to the action. The people who got closest were rewarded by some top shelf crowd surfing from the bass guitarist who surfed a perfect circle off the stage… over hundreds of outstretched fingers and back to his original spot ready to sing the next song; the room bounced as one.

All around me, sweat soaked bodies and hair, shirts were flying off and inhibitions were out the door. From the second the first chord rang out of the guitars to the last chants of “one more” (30 mins after the band had left) the art factory walls were shaking and everybody, staff included was dancing with a smile on.

If you like dance music that sounds like rock music … Do yourself a favour and see… Does it offend you Yeah?

On a scale of 1 to me they get 8.5 in star form that’s 4 and a half gold stars.

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