THE BLACK ASSASSINS
Venue: Souths Rugby League Club, Brisbane

No Fixed Address have been cutting a swathe through Brisbane over several gigs, and putting on a very impressive show to boot. Their night at Souths was no exception, but I was there for a very different reason - to witness the last gasp of this town’s most notorious exponents of arnarcho-punk, The Black Assassins (who sometimes ghosted as the Young Butchers).

A motley crew, they look nothing like the stereotype of studs and spikey hair. In fact, one is waving good-bye to his thatch while another’s crowning glory has already bitten the dust. But they live the ethos of playing for the hell of it, without losing the edge that a sense of commitment brings to their performance.

The band burst on stage dressed as liberation army cadets, complete with balaclavas and toy machine guns, dragging their guitarist, bandaged and bloodied. Then it’s into the first song, the rebellious “SWAPO Guerillas”, belted out by their keyboard dabbler, Steve Stockwell, he of the ample girth. Then it’s “The Pain Barrier” and “Beggin’ The Bullet”.

Part of the attraction of this band is the sheer fun they derive from the refusal to develop their playing skills beyond a rudimentary level. I overheard someone say that The Black Assassins make The Dead Kennedys sound like Pink Floyd. Only drummer Tony Biggs has bothered to sharpen his talents, but he’s a bit of a show-off anyway.

While a video team wanders around recording the gig for, shall we say, posterity, various notable guests trot on and off while the bands hones it’s aural equivalent of the scorched earth policy with “Drugs Drugs Drugs”, F..K Me, F..K My Dog”, “Screaming From The Watch-house” and “Painters and Dockers”, featuring a particularly sinister vocal from bassist Tony Collins. When Toowomba band Cam And The Cattle join in for the anthemic, “I Don’t Wanna Play No Commonwealth Games”, Stockwell lays into an effigy of Big Russ, one of Queensland’s Country Party ogres, with a machete. There were cover versions, like guitarist Andy Neil’s great mangling of “Waiting For My Man”, but the best was a rampant re-write of Van Morrison’s “Gloria”, which came out as “Azaria”, with all the guests on stage for the singalong. The Black Assassins Last Stand then closed with, fittingly, with “Death Take Me Now”.

There have been last stands before by this band, but with two members heading off to Sydney, this one had the real air of finality about it, so the exuberance was tinged with true regret as well. Who cares that they couldn’t play or couldn’t sing, they were still stars, still killers. The band held their own simple last rites in the car park - a duel with roman candles. Such is the stuff that legends are made of.

-BILL HOLDSWORTH