NEWS: Airbourne coming back to Belfast once again for June date

DO you remember Airbourne's storming show in the Limelight 1? Well following that sell out Belfast (review here) show in August, the Audssies are coming back to Belfast's Limelight1 on Wednesday 07th June 2017.

The band's new album Breakin’ Outta Hell was released in September 2016 to wide acclaim.

Tickets go on sale Friday November 11th at 10am from www.limelightbelfast.com, www.ticketmaster.ie Katy’s Bar & Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

There have been some hellraising rock ‘n’ roll bands, but Airbourne have taken the good-times, bad-boys, party-animal strut to a new level.

The scrappy upstarts from Warrnambool – a country town about three hours from Melbourne, announced their arrival with 2007’s Runnin’ Wild, one of the most talked-about and best-reviewed debuts in recent hard rock history.

Metal Hammer handed them a Golden Gods Award for Best Debut Album and Classic Rock rightly hailed them Best New Band. Airbourne further marked their territory with the jaw-dropping follow up No Guts. No Glory cracking the Top 40 in the UK, the Top 20 in Australia and Billboard’s Top 200.

After unrelenting global touring that included co-headlining the legendary Wacken Festival, 2013 brought the critically acclaimed Black Dog Barking into the world. The album reached #5 in Germany, Top 20 across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; and Top 30 in Canada and the U.K. Black Dog Barking brought a sound that UK’s Metal Hammer suggested, “takes seconds to memorise and a lifetime to shake off.” After hundreds of shows, and hundreds of thousands of miles travelled on the road, Airbourne are ready for the next chapter: Breakin’ Outta Hell.

Breakin’ Outta Hell brings the band full circle, reuniting them with producer Bob Marlette, known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper, and engineer/mixer Mike Fraser who has worked with the likes of Metallica and AC/DC. Marlette helmed Airbourne’s debut, Running Wild, and Fraser mixed the band’s 2nd album No Guts, No Glory.

This was the bands “dream team”, and for the first time ever they recorded and mixed in their native Australia, with Marlettte and Fraser spending several months holed up with the band at the legendary Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne. Sonically, the record sets a new benchmark for Airbourne and the collection of songs taps into the band’s incredible energy and sense of armour-plated good humour, with a musical and lyrical vigour enriched by their experiences, both on and off the road.

Airbourne’s wild image and full-tilt approach tends to disguise the attention to detail that goes into every aspect of their music and performance. The original line-up has held together through thick and thin, and however far they push out the boat, they take great care to ensure that their nights of excess do not interfere with their ability to put on a top show.

Airbourne’s reputation as a live act is already legendary. With a wall of Marshall cabinets piled high and wide behind them, they put on a show that is as exhilarating as it is immense. Now that a generation of hard rock legends are nearing the end of the road and playing their final tours, Airbourne are more ready than ever to step up to the plate. Whether diving into the crowd or free-climbing the rigging, Joel is a frontman without fear. Indeed, some festival promoters have taken to wrapping the bases of any lighting towers in the vicinity of the stage in plastic sheeting to curb some of his more extreme antics.

There was a near-riot when Joel played a guitar solo 30 feet above the stage at the Download Festival in the UK, resulting in the power being switched off in an effort to get him down.
“I was taken to a police station in a trailer on the site after that,” Joel recalls. “The head copper was saying, ‘You can’t do this again. We’ll take your passport off you. We’ll fine you £40,000, it’s a serious offence’. I said, ‘OK, we won’t do it again’. And he goes, ‘Right. Now, another bit of business. I’ve got two CDs here. Could you sign them for my kids?’ I think he forgave us.”

The mockery of pylon climbing continued at last year's Ramblin Man Fair.

Breakin’ Outta Hell is the latest chapter in the story of a band living the life with an ambition that burns like a forest fire. The songs kick harder and dig deeper than ever in the search for the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll truth. The album (released September 23rd via Spinefarm Records / Caroline Australia) has seen the Aussie rockers achieving their highest ever week-one chart positions worldwide, with Germany (No. 3) and UK (No. 9) leading the charge.

Pictures courtesy of Darren McVeigh

INTERVIEW: Airbourne's David 'Roadsy' Roads speaks of the band's fondness for Belfast and album touring plans

AIRBOURNE are one of those acts that you can't help liking. They are fun, engaging and always put on a great show.

Ahead of yesterday's sold out show in Limelight1 (review here) we caught up for a chinwag with the band's rhythm guitarist David 'Roadsy' Roads to chat about the new album, the forthcoming massive tour cycle, the band's love of Belfast....and other stuff.

LIVE REVIEW: Breakin' Out The Rock - Airbourne, The Treatment, Trucker Diablo, Belfast 24th August - Limelight1

THERE is such a thing in rock ‘n’ roll as repetitiveness – a trap that many bands fall into. But it takes a certain talent to throw aside the temptation to churn out the same old stuff and deliver a stunning set.

Airbourne have that talent.

When they landed in Belfast’s Limelight - the third last show in a lengthy run supporting the Breakin Outta Hell tour – they still had the energy and the joy of being on stage that few can match.

Indeed that same ability is inherent in local heroes, Trucker Diablo, a band that also know that being just one of the herd is not an option.

With a bagful of great songs they open the show with intent and intensity. Whether it is the party anthem ‘Drink Beer, Destroy’ (with added ‘Tallica) or the melodic power of ‘Drive’ the Big Truck always rolls over doubters.

The crowd were also treated to a new song ‘Fight…’, but the evidence of the band’s drawing power that more people than usual for an opening act.

The Treatment are regular visitors to Belfast, and Mitchell Emms presence (and looks) to make sure that a fair proportion of those down the front were of the gentler gender...

The Cambridge based band provides relatively inoffensive hard rock, and attempt to preserve the energy Trucker had delivered to the Limelight. While there is a lot of  oomph at times the audience’s attention wavers.

Airbourne have been playing dates in Belfast from their earliest of their European tours, they earnestly try to include the city in all their campaigns. So established are they in terms of Northern Ireland’s favour that once again they sell-out Limelight1.

And, they reward the packed audience with a show that belies the fact that they are on the 25^th date of a run that has taken them around Europe as headliners and at festivals.

However, when the rip into ‘Ready To Rock’ it as if they are on the first date. The cliché of ‘bundle of energy’ could have been made for Joel, as he races around the stage, fingers flying over frets, beer cans bashing off his head and tossed into the audience.

The band collectively provides excellence, poised, without ever seeming to be playing just another set. Whether it is new single ‘Breakin’ Outta Hell’ from the forthcoming album, or closer ‘Runnin’ Wild’ Airbourne are professional and entertaining.

It was a set that was pretty much the same as they have played on the tour, but there is always a sense with Airbourne that they are still hungry, still wanting to whip the audience into a sweaty, beer-sodden, grinning mob of rock madness.

‘Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast’ came early in the set, but it was a none too subtle nod at the verve they were to unleash.

‘Girls in Black’, ‘Diamond In The Rough’, ‘Live It Up’ – live hits that resonate...

Sure, it isn’t high art, but we don’t always want our rock as a high brow, literate. We want it loud, proud and our fuckin’ face.

Review by Jonny

Pictures by Darren McVeigh

Reproduction by explicit written consent only

Groovin' with pub rock as Airbourne and Black Spiders prepare to descend on Belfast

SAY want you want, but it seems that there are bands that go out of their way to play in Belfast, when others leave it all to whether their booking agent can be arsed touting the acts beyond the North Channel.

Airbourne seem to fall within the former category. It may just be the booking agent, or it may be the band like playing here, but Airbourne have been faithful visitors to these shores since the release of Running Wild.

Now with the Black Dog Barking tour the Aussie quartet are bringing their bawdy pub rock mayhem back to Limelight1 this coming Monday. Remember that this is a band that has sold out Limelight2, Spring and Airbrake and the Mandella Hall. Seems they are pretty popular in this town...

Conforming to the stereotype for Australian rock 'n' rollers they are relatively short, include two brothers, lay down an infectious series of songs and just seem intent on enjoying life (think DC, Rose Tattoo).

But they are not slavish followers of a tried and tested route. They are meatier than the Angry Anderson fronted crew and have a faster - almost Motorhead-like - pace than DC. One thing they do have is a front man in Joel O'Keefe that loves bouncing off the stage and climbing all over PA systems - he is allegedly thinking of releasing a mountaineering DVD...

From humble origins in the Warrnambool in the Australian state of Victoria they have albums that have charted across the world and a devoted fanbase.

Mix in the groove of Black Spiders - no strangers to these shores either with previous support slots for Airbourne and The Answer - and you have a pretty special Monday night on Ormeau Avenue.

Some tickets £20+booking fee are still available, but be quick!