Dave Eastgate and Boner Contention

Boner Contention are a hard-rocking, leather-clad, heavy-metal-comedy-band lead by comedian-front-man Dave Eastgate (A Moody Christmas, The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting, Slide Show), backed up by Andy Darsana aka ‘The Balinese Bandit’ who wields a machine-gun-bass (the bass guitar is literally in the shape of an AK-47, completed with bullet-strap-belt made from real bullets) along with the incredible talents and ridiculous good looks of Ben and Andrew Grant on lead guitar and drums respectively who create a sizzling sibling, power-metal combo to rival the Van Halen brothers. Formed after Eastgate’s hit 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Show, “I wish I had a Band”, Boner Contention was seen as the next logical step. Eastgate assembled some musical friends and produced a show for the 2012 Sydney Comedy Festival called “Rock N’ Roll Glory Hole”. The Executive Producer of ABC 1’s “Wednesday Night Fever” witness the sickness of their very first performance and immediately offered them the gig, nearly a year before the show was even officially commissioned. However, things suddenly went very pear shaped three months from the start of the show when drummer, Jordan McDonald’s alt-rock outfit, The Art, were signed to Guns N’ Roses former management and whisked off for a US and European tour. Jordan’s Brother Joel, who had up until then filled the role of sex god lead guitarist decided to pull the string as well after realising that playing in five bands with a day job wasn’t necessarily conducive to raising a newborn. Eastgate now says “I can’t fault those boys, we wouldn’t be here without em and I gotta thank Joel for being so honest, he loved doing it, but it takes a lot of commitment, especially if you’re on TV every week and I know that he was right, it’s gruelling. I was pretty bummed though, I begged him to stay because I had no idea where I was gonna find anyone that good…But Joel was adamant that there was someone better, so he put me in touch with the “other brothers” Ben and Andrew Grand AND HE WAS RIGHT! They’re ridiculous!” The rest as they say is a boring subject about what happened in the past. The line-up complete, there was one minor obstacle; Ben was in the states until June, meaning the boys would have to learn the songs via email and rehearse via Skype! Dave and Ben did not meet until three weeks before the show aired and two weeks before their first warm-up gig at The Harold Park hotel, which was attended by none other than the Queen of Comedy, Dawn French! It’s a remarkable story and hard to fathom when you see the chemistry and precision shown when they play. Dave Eastgate and Boner Contention host LIVE ROCK N' ROLL KARAOKE every Tuesday at Frankie's Pizza, Sydney.