Airbourne

“Guitar music is dead!” is a phrase that has not been infrequently thrown around over the past decade. Yet whilst rock music might not dominate the mainstream, this is clearly a falsity. One band which refuses to let hard rock die is Australian quartet Airbourne, who have released some of the finest fist-pumping riffs since 2003. Playing Gibson Explorers with big, wild, curly hair, they certainly look the part. Releasing three studio albums thus far, they have proven that their riotous and energetic music could have stood up against the biggest hair-metal bands of the 80s.
Their set at German festival Rock Am Ring in 2013 brought enough power and vigour to have induced severe concussion in the audience from the sheer amount of uncontrollable head-banging. Their music is made to be played in stadiums, to which they received a roar of appreciation as they played tracks “Running Wild,” “Diamond in the Rough” and “Black Dog Barking.” After the atmospheric intro, they ran out to stage going straight into “Ready to Rock,” with the crowd certainly feeling the band’s massive energy, jumping wildly in appreciation.
One of the best things about Airbourne is simply that their music is just pure fun. Too often humour is lost due to artistic pretensions but the likes of Airbourne restore a sense of reckless joy that comes from just having fun, rocking out with your friends. Hearing their songs takes you back to a time when posing in front of a mirror with your guitar slung low made you feel fantastic and full of wild dreams of playing to thousands of people. Listening to Airbourne keeps this spirit alive, eroding any self-consciousness and embarrassment at raising your devil horns and ferociously nodding your head.

If you’re in any way familiar with Airbourne, or indeed of any of the press attention that’s surrounded them for their career so far, you’ll probably already be wondering how many words I’m going to be able to get into this review before I mention AC/DC. In this case, it’s fifty-one. That’s the thing about Airbourne; they’ve never quite been able to shake off comparisons to the legendary Australian outfit, with their classic rock sound certainly in debt to some of the titans of the genre, and the vocals provided by frontman Joel O’Keefe being uncannily similar to those of Brian Johnson. That said, they’ve plenty of merit in their own right; they have a huge cult fanbase across the world, and are a big draw in their native Australia, playing big shows across the country on a regular basis. They also toured club-sized venues in the UK last year after releasing Black Dog Barking, playing heavy sets that drew upon tracks from all three of their full-lengths and saw some fierce musicianship on display; I daresay they might be more technically proficient than that band they’re so often compared to, in fact, and certainly well worth checking out next time they hit the road.

Hailing all the way from Warrnambool, down under in Australia, Airbourne have a sold out show this evening. They bring their arsenal of heavy distorted guitars played in the style of some of rock music’s biggest heroes such as AC/DC and Deep Purple, as though they are a not so current but transcendent version of English rockers, The Darkness. Joel O’Keeffe’s screaming vocals are at the epicenter of some of the largest and loudest earthquake sing-alongs that this venue has ever experienced. Airbourne have achieve such great chart success, globally with their three studio albums charting in over ten different countries with Germany being their most successful recipients, seeing their last two albums make it to the top 5.
The musicality of both O’Keefe brothers is intricate, with them playing guitar solos in fantastic harmony, similar to that of Thin Lizzy, the audience just singing along as though there is no tomorrow. Their breakthrough song “Too Much, Too Young Too Fast” is probably their biggest song of the night, with a mammoth guitar riff to match.

Old school Heavy fuckin Metal Rock n Roll. These guys are so much more than ACDC-a-likes. Marshall stacked, sweating buckets within minutes on stage. Great anthemic tunes banged out super tight. Great audience rapport, not my thing but best mosh pit I've seen in a while - full of topless sweaty youths. Shredding on the back of a roadie in the middle of the audience. They deservedly got raucous approval, smashed it. My ears rang for hours and every punter left breathless with a shit-eating grin on their face.

Airbourne are one of the best live bands now must never be missed amazing they played great lots of the old stuff did not disappoint wished it went on like longer roundhouse great place easy to get to easy to leave love love them carnt waitbfor next year

As long as you're alive and we're alive
Rock'n'Roll will never die ! \m/

Very energetic and so f*cking Rock and Roll. Joel O'keef set the crowd on fire. If you hesitate to go for it because of the price, it's totally worth it

Not the first time I've seen Airbourne and definitely not the last. I can't wait to see them again, just a superb live band and the support bands were great too. Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons were excellent.

That was fantastic, these guys are crazy and bring some warm atmosphere from Australia! Appreciated and recommended, a must see!
ps: bring beer-proof clothes !! you'll understand why once at the show.

They had an awesome game where someone had to get on someone's shoulder and then they would throw out a beer to you. It was a great show! I couldn't hear what he was saying but it pretty much rocked!

TOP SHOW TOP ROCK BAND THE BEST AROUND SEEN THEM BEFORE AND THEY JUST GET BETTER AND BETTER CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE THEM AGAIN ALL MY FRIENDS WHO WENT SAY THE SAME LONG LIVE AND PLAY AIRBOURNE RnR