Hard-Ons preview

Hard-Ons
Beat Kitchen, Chicago
Friday, October 13, 2006

Australian band dumps the punk and puts all the chips on pop.

No complaining, though. After all, it has been 21 years since the band formed so if they want to get a little crazy, mix things up, experiment, they’ve earned the right. Plus, the Sydney band probably don’t care much what you think, as they’ve never taken themselves too seriously, what with albums called Dick Cheese and song titles that include “(Everytime I Hear)Techno (I Pray For Death),” “Suck ‘N’ Swallow,” and “I Farted.”

So maybe Most People Are A Waste Of Time (Bad Taste) is an attempt for these three Hard-Ons (Blackie, Pete, and Ray) to be grown-ups. Or maybe they just needed a break from the pop punk genre they helped sculpt, yet get little credit for. Either way the record is an impressive effort. The band’s trademark humor is still evident on tracks like “There Goes One Of The Creeps That Hassled My Girlfriend” but overall the Hard-Ons take a less muscular, less hyperactive approach and instead focus on sugarcoated pop and power pop — lots of melodies, harmonies, and an emphasis on sweetness. Fans shouldn’t get too bent out of shape, though, because the Hard-Ons already have a follow-up planned that will scrap the sweet for lots of thrash, hardcore, and metal.

Hard-Ons, along with Toys That Kill, open for The Queers at 10 p.m. The same lineup plays an all-ages show at 5.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to listen to streaming samples of Hard-Ons.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly