13 September 2022 – Riverstage Brisbane – words by Joe Harbour – pictures by Bec Harbour
After a bit of rain this week it was a lovely balmy night on Tuesday for an outdoor gig. Reschedules and logistics for this tour means that this should have happened earlier this year, a reality in this present reality.
After fighting my way through the afternoon Brisbane CBD traffic, I made my way into the Riverstage amphitheatre to the sounds of The Buoys. Who are in fact female, a fact that seemed to surprise a few punters. Singer Zoe Catterall was seated during the performance (injury perhaps) and The Buoys did an overview of their music so far that included ‘Red Flags’, ‘Lie to Me Again’ and ‘Linda’.
There was a short interlude while the stage was changed over for the Dandy Warhols, with the sun setting and more people coming into the amphitheatre, checking out the food stalls, merch tent and grabbing a well-deserved drink after hauling themselves up the hill into the venue. People seemed just as excited to see the Dandy Warhols as they were to see the headlining Hoodoo Gurus and there was a good showing of vintage Dandy Warhols shirts in the crowd.
The Dandy Warhols have toured Australia quite a few times over their career, their last time in 2019. They are a consistently great band to see live and I was looking forward to seeing them. They walked on quietly to rapturous cheers and applause and took their places on stage, with Courtney Taylor-Taylor curiously turning his back to the audience and seeming to be very interested in his amps. With the feedback of the opening song from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia ‘Godless’ forthcoming, the crowd cheered and began to dance to this lo-fi start to their set.
‘Godless’ morphed into ‘Styggo’ from 2016’s Distortland and the perennial classic ‘We Used to Be Friends’, the crowd settled in for a set of classics, that included ‘You Were the Last High’, ‘Get Off’, and ‘Boys Better’. And just like that, their set was over.
By now the crowd was pumped for Hoodoo Gurus. I must say I was looking forward to seeing them, having missed several opportunities over the years. When the Hoodoo Gurus made their way onstage the crowd gave them a standing ovation, especially since Brad Shepherd is a Brisbane boy. Hoodoo Gurus have a reputation for high energy shows and they did not disappoint tonight, kicking off their set with ‘World of Pain’ from their current release Chariot of the Gods.
Then came a career overview beginning with ‘Tojo’ and taking in crowd favourites such as ‘The Right Time’, ‘Death Defying’, ‘I Want You Back’, and crowd favourite ‘My Girl’. A return to the present with the title track from Chariot of the Gods, and into ‘Come Anytime’ had the whole crowd singing along at the top of their lungs.
After a quick vocal duties swap with Shepherd singing on ‘Equinox’, Dave Faulkner stepped back up with ‘Poison Pen’, ‘Bittersweet’, ‘Miss Freelove ’69’, ‘1000 Miles Away’ (which had the biggest singalong on a night where everyone sang along to everything), wrapping their set up with ‘I was a Kamikaze Pilot’.
Of course, there were so many songs they hadn’t played and they returned to the stage to thunderous applause completing their set with three more, ‘Leilani’, ‘What’s My Scene’ and ‘Like Wow – Wipeout!’.
The sets were solid and I would see all three bands again in a heartbeat (I would love to see them all in a smaller venue with no noise curfew). The musicianship was incredible, it was hard to believe we were at a live gig and not listening to the recorded versions.
