LIVE: ROSE TATTOO with LEGS ELECTRIC – Perth | Boorloo, 16 May 2026

LIVE: ROSE TATTOO with LEGS ELECTRIC – Perth | Boorloo, 16 May 2026
The Gosnells Hotel, Perth | Boorloo, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Pete Gardner  

Hair flailing, harmony-heavy, rifftastic local rockers Legs Electric delivered a fiery opening set which had a large amount of the 500-strong Eastern suburbs crowd moving n’ grooving. It sure helps that veteran drummer Kylie Soanes drives a relentless beat; singer Ama Quinsee is a force of nature with a voice like a throatier Robert Plant; guitarist Elana Haynes throws all the right kind of rock shapes; and bassist Erin ‘Ezza’ Gooden nails a hypnotic rock solid groove, putting the roll into their rock n’ roll.

Covers of Proud Mary and Black Night sit alongside originals Volcanic, Been There and a new track, everything given the Legs Electric treatment up to eleven, leaving the crowd very warmed up and eager for the main act.

Rose Tattoo used to be true rock n’ roll outlaws, Angry Anderson even had a side hustle on daytime television helping underprivileged kids and such get funding for medical issues, building playgrounds, supporting rehabilitation programs and more. Somehow in more recent years he’s leaned into a darker side, inexplicably conflating supporting the downtrodden in our society with supporting the hatemonger grifter groups and politicians out for their own selfish agendas. At one point one of our group even leant over and asked, “are we at a One Nation rally, FFS?!?!”

As a fan of Rose Tattoo’s music almost since the beginning, around 1981, and a veteran of many shows, I’ve witnessed the frontman’s rants getting more and more surly and obnoxious, and seen him alienate large portions of his fanbase with attitudes which have become more and more distasteful. Thankfully the music remains the focal point for this reviewer, and I choose in this instance to separate the art from the artist, but some of Angry’s rants are neither appropriate nor welcome to the vast majority of us, just cringe. Freedom of speech is one thing, punching down and being racist very much another.

The rock n’ roll, though, is as fiery and essential as it (almost) ever was. (Let’s forget about the Beats From A Single Drum era, shall we).

This tour – ostensibly a ‘farewell’ tour, but we all know these things are more often than not a marketing ploy – focusses entirely on the band’s first two albums: the self-titled Rose Tattoo from 1978 and Assault & Battery from 1981, playing every song bar one from the former LP and two from the latter.

The line-up is very different from those heady days, of course. Nowadays, backing Anderson is powerhouse drummer Paul DeMarco, not long returned after a holiday as a guest of the state; returning bass legend Steve ‘Kingy’ King; and relative newbies sharing guitar duties, slide aficionado Mick Arnold and Faster Pussycat/Richie Ramone gunslinger Ronnie Simmons. They may not have been there (or even born, in Simmons’ case) for those early, essential slabs of Oz rock raucousness, but they can certainly channel the necessary groove and grit like it’s firmly embedded under their nails and deep in their bones.

The spirit of late members Pete Wells, Ian Rilen, Digger Royall, Mick Cocks & Lobby Loyde are done great service by the sheer behemoth might of these songs, so essential to the Aussie Rock songbook, yet so far out on the heavier end of the spectrum of dirty, filthy rock n’ roll.

The band bely their age(s): they’re tight and loose, feisty and fiery, improbably raw and absolutely full of rock attitude. Assault & Battery, All The Lessons and Nice Boys are raucous anthems; Rock n’ Roll Is King, One of the Boys and Bad Boy For Love are full of swing and bounce, poppy boogies fit for dancing; Suicide City, Butcher & Fast Eddy and Astra Wally are dangerous, swaggering street beasts looking for a fight. Musically, it’s a gloriously sweaty barrage of everything that is great about Australian rock n’ roll.

Sure enough, by the end of the set Anderson was promising they’d be back later in the year for another round taking in 1982’s Scarred For Life through to 2007’s Blood Brothers. Hopefully we’ll be spared The Pirate Song, Winnie Mandela and the Neighbours-famous Suddenly, but all of Scarred and Blood Brothers will always be welcome.

Setlist:

Out Of This Place
Assault & Battery
Magnum Maid
All The Lessons
Rock n’ Roll Is King
Manzil Madness
Chinese Dunkirk
Sidewalk Sally
Suicide City
Rock n’ Roll Outlaw
Nice Boys
Butcher & Fast Eddie
One Of The Boys
Remedy
Bad Boy For Love
Tramp
Astra Wally

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries