Back in the Game

The Zoo Crew has got that one spinning right now for all you Zoo Freaks out there, and man does it hit. Back in the Game by Airbourne off Black Dog Barking is pure guts and gasoline, the kind of track that makes you want to throw a leg over the bike and just roll. Those Aussie rockers put it out in 2013 as their third full-length, and it still feels like it was cut yesterday in some loud rehearsal shed. From the interviews the brothers did around that time, Joel and Ryan O'Keeffe talked about how the song captures that moment when you've been locked away writing and tracking for months, then the dates start lining up and that first show comes crashing in. One of them described it as being off the road, piecing the album together, and then bang, the tours start flowing and you hit the stage like you've never left. That's the whole vibe: the hard road, the sweat on the back of the neck, the roar of ten thousand loud, and that ricochet feel when you hit the stage again. You better watch out because they're back in the game, kicking ass and built to last, like a high-octane hurricane that doesn't crash.

They recorded the whole album with producer Brian Howes up in Vancouver and over in Los Angeles, and the band said they pushed everything hard, working seven days a week even through the holidays to get those undying tones. Howes came from that Canadian school of big rock production, and the guys bonded with him right away over the real stuff, AC/DC, Motörhead, Priest, the whole lot. They had written a pile of songs, something like forty ideas from the road and soundchecks, and only the ones that rocked the hardest made the cut. The album title itself came from that old black dog idea, the one in the folklore and the literature, the dark passenger that shows up when the pressure is on, like Churchill dealing with the darkest days. Joel and Ryan talked about it as that mystical beast that comes in the night, the one truck drivers see after too many hours, and they said Airbourne are the black dogs of rock and roll. If you mess around, that dog is going to rip your head off. David Roads even tied it to not caring about those dB limits, just going hard or going home. The cover art by the Sharp Brothers shows those dripping fangs, the last thing you see before rock and roll does its thing.

That track even turned up later in an episode of Cobra Kai, which fits because the whole album is about drawing a line in the sand and living the rock and roll life or not. In one of the track-by-track chats they did, they called Black Dog Barking a cocktail that would knock you out, pure petrol if you had to mix it. They wanted that stadium-filling sound from the eighties but with their own pub-rock edge, the kind of stuff that fills the room and doesn't let go, like the bite of a pitbull. Reviews at the time noted how it sat next to the classics without trying to reinvent anything, just delivering the riffs, the solos, and that no-frills drive. The band always said their glory was in playing the shows, being happy, and doing the rock and roll with the whole crew, the roadies and everyone in on it.

Now, how these cats got started is pure country-town rock and roll story. Airbourne came together in late 2001 down in Warrnambool, Victoria, a place where the pastimes were football and a few too many beers. The O'Keeffe brothers were the core from the jump. Joel on vocals and lead guitar, his younger brother Ryan on the drums. Joel had been playing guitar since he was eleven, picking out the classic Australian rock and the seventies and eighties stuff while everyone else was into whatever was new. Ryan got his first kit around the same age, and they practiced loud enough that the neighbors called the police more than once for the noise complaints. That didn't slow them down. Joel was working at the Hotel Warrnambool when he met David Roads, and they'd bring their guitars to the job, jam on ideas after the shifts, and soon Roads was in on rhythm guitar. Bass player Justin Street came along when Ryan literally ran into him while stumbling home drunk from a party one night, rolling down the sand dunes or whatever the story goes. Turns out the new mate played bass and was up for it, and the lineup locked in.

They started as a three-piece or so under the Airborne name, played local spots like the Criterion Hotel, and put out a self-financed EP called Ready to Rock in 2004. That one was all their own money, eight tracks of the early material influenced by AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, the Angels, Billy Thorpe. They won a statewide band competition up in Melbourne, the Push-On thing, and started driving the three hours to the city for shows, sometimes coming home as the sun came up with twenty-five bucks and a full day ahead. Eventually they packed up and moved to Melbourne full-time, living in a band house, throwing parties, and hustling gigs by walking into pubs with press packs saying if you need a band for Monday night, we're here. They supported the Rolling Stones, Mötley Crüe, played Big Day Out, and got the call from Capitol to head to the States and cut the debut Runnin' Wild with Bob Marlette. From there it was the hard way, the hunger that never left, just like they talk about in songs from that era. They kept that same mentality of go hard or go home, play every gig like it's the last one, no matter the venue.

You can hear all that history in Back in the Game, the same relentless drive that started in those Warrnambool rehearsals and never stopped. The Zoo Crew keeps the freeform album rock spinning for the Zoo Freaks, and this one fits right in with the deep cuts and the backstories. Check out the Airbourne official website for the latest from the band, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and X. There are active fan pages out there like the Airbourne Crew Germany keeping the rock and roll flag flying for the supporters. And of course, stick with THE ZOO for more of that commercial-free rock and roll that the Zoo Freaks live for, the kind of station where the DJs are out there with the records and the stories just like these.