Reviewed on Saturday January 24 (photo by Jamie Williams)

Kid Congo Powers has long been known as a sidekick, rather than a frontman. A founding member of The Gun Club, Powers has been an axeslinger for The Cramps, Berlin-era Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and had stints in Die Haut and The Fall (who hasn’t?). But fronting The Pink Monkey Birds, he holds his own. He’s sweeter than his former bandmates, with a cartoonish presence and a genuine sense of enjoyment while playing. With his John Waters pencilled moustache, lopsided leather cap and patch-covered jacket, Powers cut a charismatically cheeky figure at his Sydney Festival show. Completing the B-grade rocker look, his band members wore matching neckerchiefs and denim jackets.

Powers and his Pink Monkey Birds ripped through a set of garage punk with swampy flavours. His first song was a version of the children’s song ‘Found A Peanut’, his inflections coming off like a rockabilly Fred Schneider. With camp swagger, Powers took a theatrical delight in announcing each song thematically. “I’ve seen some people do the mash potato, I’ve seen some do the monkey, but I haven’t seen anyone doing the sex beat,” he said, before jumping into the first of The Gun Club material. While Powers lacks the gut-punching wail of the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce, he does the songs – from ‘She’s Like Heroin To Me’ to set closer ‘For The Love Of Ivy’ – justice.

The set wasn’t all covers – Powers played tracks off his three solo albums, including ‘LSDC’ and the standout ‘Haunted Head’. New material included ‘Ricky Ticky Tocky’ and the instrumental ‘Bruce Juice’, which had enough bite and back-and-forth riffs that it almost felt like a Sleater-Kinney song. The set was studded with instrumentals, but Powers and co. didn’t overstay their welcome – they kept the energy levels up and encouraged dancing. The crowd – with a mixture of Cramp T-shirts, sequins, wigs and greased-back hairdos – met each song with rapid enthusiasm, to the extent of shouting out heckles in Spanish. “Como te llamas?” they asked. “Kid Congo. If you want to be formal, Kid Congo Powers.”

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