Date: 20/3/09
Time: 10pm start/TSG midnight
 
Venue: Crown & Anchor Hotel
              Grenfell St, Adelaide
 
Other Bands: Booster, Double Handed
 
Extra: Ayo! Lets Go! CD LAUNCH

Crown & Anchor Hotel
Fri, March 20, 2009

The Crown and Anchor Hotel in Adelaide’s East End was the venue for the launch of ‘Ayo, Let’s Go!’, the debut EP from SA 3-piece The Secret Game. The band has been taking their unique brand of ‘pop chunk’ all over the country and overseas since their inception in 2006 and was finally gracing their hometown with their presence.
Local rockers Booster warmed up the crowd with a fun an energetic set, drummer/singer Sean ‘Kempy’ Kemp working up quite a sweat in the process. This was followed by a set from another local act Double Handed, who entertained the audience with their undulating mix of rock and jazz tempos.
By the time the headline act took the stage, a healthy Cranka crowd had packed into the venue to check out was these lads had to offer. The show kicked off with a flurry of audiovisual activity with the short, sharp and shiny ‘If I Can’. The band continued to punch through their set with terrific enthusiasm, showcasing all of the tracks from the disc. Some highlights included the rifftastic ‘Amnesia’, which with its catchy chorus is surely a song which can appeal to a wide variety of music fans; the slow grooving ‘Hospitable’, which highlighted the bands ability to mix up the tempo, while the rocking ‘Distressed Princess’ is certainly one to get the head nodding. Another memorable moment was the performance of a reggae version of ‘Killing in the Name’. This created an interesting and in hindsight humorous vibe in the crowd, which seemed to be somewhere between “Ah cool, that’s a bit different, sweet!” and “Don’t mess with my favourite Rage song, you bastards!”
As the show drew to a close, the band demonstrated their funky instrumental jamming skills, before finishing the set with the intelligently constructed rock music parody ‘Riff Off’. This song has to be heard to be explained. All in all a tight, enjoyable and enthusiastic performance from The Secret Game, who interacted well with the crowd and left them wanting more. Instead, they had to be contented with their own copy of the EP.