Such an amazing gig. I didn't want The Whitlams' set to end, I didn't want them to leave the stage, I wanted them to play another song and another and another...
When we walk into the Metro, everyone ahead of us in the line (and there were a good 40-50 odd people) is either at the bar or seated. Mend and I stare at the barely occupied barrier in a kind of disbelieving wonder, then decide, hell, why not? I really do love experiencing a concert from the floor, even if my feet and legs do kill the next day, and even when most of the time my sight is obscured by a large sweaty man. So we pick a spot just to the left of the centre of the stage on the barrier, which means the stage is about a metre away from me. We would NOT be regretting this decision by the end of the night. I spent every other moment just basking in the fact that I had an unobstructed view of everyone and everything and every single moment on stage for the whole entire night. Plus the crowd was this weird mix of everything from conservative to alternative, young to old, and overall very polite so I had space to dance along and breathe and didn't get jostled once.
We had no idea who the support acts were. The first support act, James Cooper, played average singer-songwriter pop rock that occasionally was quite fun but nothing stuck in my head at all. And for someone that had a four piece band with him, there wasn't much sound or energy coming through. Second support act were a five member band headed by a female singer, The Hampdens, who played a 45 minute set that seemed a lot lot longer, mostly because they weren't particularly catchy, didn't seem very enthused about being on stage, and had very little presence.
Thank goodness for The Whitlams, who utterly redeemed the night.
Tim Freedman is funny and sharp and really lovely and has a really sweet smile. He and Jak Housden in particular have really good chemistry and there was some good banter going on between them towards the end, but the band is really great together as a whole. The four of them (Tim Freedman on piano, Jak Housden on guitar, Warwick Hornby on bass and Terepai Richmond on drums; they all have a part in vocals which surprised me) seemed to be having so much fun, and they played so well individually as well as together; there’s such joy in their performance that it just spilled out over the crowd, who were quite placid at the start but really warmed up to a fannish devotion by the end. The lone drunk annoying woman, who would interrupt at inappropriate moments with a whooping call (like a bad coo-ee!) was thoroughly told off by Tim Freedman in the first ten minutes, and actually seemed to get the idea after the THIRD time he told her to shut up and go away. Not to make him sound crotchety, because everybody must have been feeling the same way - the room erupted in cheers after she was chastised.
The set list – oh goodness, what a set. 20+ songs over two hours, so I couldn’t really give an ordered list but I can remember most of what we heard. The first six songs were definitely:
Beauty in Me
White Horses
Fall For You
I Will Not Go Quietly
Make Me Hard
Tonight
Then I think just after Tim had announced they were playing 'Fondness Makes the Heart Grow Absent' next, Terepai Richmond’s snare drum broke, or something malfunctioned or it was planned, but anyway, the rest of the band moved offstage and left Tim Freedman in his own, and he performed absolutely heartbreakingly beautifully '12 Hours' and 'Charlie No.2' with just his voice and the piano, and I’m sure people behind us were crying through the second song and I was mesmerised because '12 Hours' is my favourite song off Little Cloud and I have listened to it over and over in these last few months especially in some of my worst days and to hear it so pure and unadorned and perfect was just amazing.
The band then came back on and continued, though they didn’t end up playing 'Fondess...' at all. The next lot of songs were definitely in there though possibly not this order:
Little Cloud
No Aphrodisiac
Blow Up the Pokies
You Sound Like Louie Burdett
I Was Alive
Royal in the Afternoon
Fancy Lover
Year of the Rat
There was a song that I didn’t know just before 'I Was Alive'; Tim said it was about considering marriage and deciding NO (“luckily for her” he quipped) and then they segued from that into 'I Was Alive' which is kind of the opposite, about a very stormy relationship that seemed to have been worth it anyway. The last two songs of the main set were definitely 'Thank You' - which was so very very good live, energetic and happy and so appropriate for the moment with its chorus that suggests a band looking back on their long successful career and thanking the fans who've stuck with them despite everything – and 'Gough'. There was moment in Gough where I just stopped and looked this sold out room of very disparate people, brought together by a band who had them all singing and dancing along to a song about Australian politics and betrayal in the 1970s, and I just laughed because it was so cool and unusual and what other band could do it?
There were two encores. Tim Freedman came out on his own to do 'Charlie No. 3' (my one tiny disappointment was that there was no 'Charlie No.1' to complete the set and my wishes) with just him and the piano, then they went into a rousing rendition of 'Stay With Me' and also 'The Hamburger Song', which the crowd went wild for. Second encore was'She's Moving In' and then one final song.
Everything sounded excellent live – from classics with new arrangements (such as with 'No Aphrodisiac') to the newer songs that sounded louder and bigger out of the studio and came alive, to the delicately beautiful solo songs. For just four guys on the stage, they have such energy and sound that they fill the room. It was an awesome night, and best of all – the tickets had only cost $30. I’ve never had better value for money at a live gig.
