Get ready for a high voltage performance

FROM shy kid to electric stage performer, Kane Dennelly of 19-Twenty, credits music with giving him confidence.

"I learnt to play guitar because I wanted a girlfriend," he said.

"I was 12 years old and my mother dressed me in a skivvy."

The adolescent Kane locked himself away in his room for two years, honing his skills on the guitar.

"I always really shy, when I had family come over to listen to me play guitar, I cried because I was so nervous," he said.

"I was just a guitar nerd," he said, then, he went to his first blues festival.

"It just blew my head off seeing the effect music can have on people," he said.

"I saw people forget any of the problems they had and just immerse themselves in the festival scene."

Kane, who used to use humour so people would laugh at his songs rather than at him, had realised the power of music.

Blues and roots band 19-Twenty, with Syd Green on drums, John Gwilliam on double bass and Kane on guitar and vocals, is known for their high energy, impulsive performances.

"(We are an) unexpected band I guess, we never go in with an idea, we never have a set list," Kane says.

One time, he says they started a fire as part of their act, another time they got forty people up on stage with them.

"They loved it ..." he said.

"We are just three best mates having the time of our lives, when we are on stage, we are just laughing ..."

"When the (audience) see us having fun, they have fun ... people just want to enjoy life, I think we give them that opportunity for an hour or however long we're playing."

Kane says the band mates have a method to their madness.

"We always decide what's the first song we are going to play and then work around that," he said.

"We're pretty intuitive in terms of feeling the energy of the people in front of us, if people know our songs, we'll totally play them."

They are happy to take requests too.

Kane says the band attracts people of all ages, perhaps this is because people are drawn to the fun the band mates are obviously having.

But he said, like most bands when they first started out, it was tough.

"I remember once when we first started, we just drove around Australia six or seven times in my mum's Toyota. We were so poor we were just camping by the side of the road ...." he said.

"I nearly got glassed in an outback pub, ...it was lunchtime... it was one of those mining towns, and this girl comes up and says 'do you guys mind if you play after me?"

It turned out the girl was a stripper, performing to a pub full of men and the men were less than happy when the band set up to replace her.

"It was character building," says Kane, "they didn't want to see us."

Now, he thinks, they have been through the worst and they just want to keep on doing what they are doing.

"If we can do what we are doing now for the next ten years we'd be stoked," he said.

"I think a lot of the problems with a lot of new bands (is) they don't have the miles under the belt ... we've been through that, everyone has to pay their dues in any industry and that's the way we do it."

The band are currently touring with their fourth album, Triad.

Check out the 19-Twenty website at www.19twentymusic.com where you can also purchase their music and tickets.

Catch 19-Twenty at the first ever Under the Trees Festival next month:

Saturday, October 14 at Boyne Island Tannum Sports Ground, Jacaranda Drive.