Hard to be more explicit: with Runnin’ Wild, in 2007, Airbourne storm out of Warrnambool, a small coastal Australian town, with a single goal in mind, to make the amps howl like in the golden age of pub hard rock. Led by brothers Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe, the band never hides its worship of AC/DC and Rose Tattoo for a second. This debut seeks neither finesse nor originality: it wants speed, sweat and choruses to bawl with a beer in hand, and it delivers exactly that with contagious conviction.
AC/DC’s spiritual son
Everything on this record breathes the most direct Australian hard-rock heritage. The riffs are hacked out with an axe, the rhythm section pounds without ever slowing, and Joel O’Keeffe’s rasping voice unabashedly summons the ghost of Bon Scott. Airbourne fully own their lineage, to the point where they could be accused of aping their idols. But the drive is so sincere, the energy so overflowing, that the pastiche turns into living tribute. Nothing is reinvented, a fire simply relit that was thought reserved for legends.
An unkillable first shot
Tracks like Runnin’ Wild, Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast, Diamond in the Rough or Girls in Black have become instant classics of the repertoire, built for the stage and thirsty crowds. The muscular, no-frills production puts the band’s raw power up front. Nothing sticks out, everything goes straight to the point: it is old-school hard rock, effective and joyful, just waiting to explode live. The album races along without the slightest dead spot, carried by a palpable hunger for recognition.
The benchmark of the discography
In hindsight, Runnin’ Wild is often regarded as Airbourne’s best album, the one where the formula lands with the most freshness. The band would barely evolve afterwards, but it did not need to: it had found its reason for being right away. This record laid the foundations of a career wholly devoted to festive hard rock, without compromise or hidden agenda. A manifesto of pure energy that made Airbourne one of the last guardians of a certain idea of rowdy rock.
Runnin’ Wild reinvents nothing and makes no secret of it, and that is precisely its strength. Raw, fast and terribly endearing, it embodies everything pub hard rock can offer at its most enjoyable. For anyone who loves AC/DC and no-nonsense rock, it is a sure bet, the best entry point into the world of a band that never cheated on its intentions. A first punch whose echo still resounds in everything Airbourne has done since.
