14 January 2025 – Riverstage, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
The Riverstage found itself being the site for my first gig for 2025, and I could not have been any more thrilled, with the return of Canadian singer songwriter Dallas Green to Australia. In what will be his first of two shows in Brisbane over the next few months (Alexisonfire play the Riverstage in March), Brisbane was the first cab off the rank for Green’s alternative rock side project, that doesn’t feel like a side project anymore, City and Colour. And if this tour couldn’t get any bigger, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats and Alex Lahey on support were there to just sweeten the deal even more.
Alex Lahey opened my 2025 festivities, and Lahey is a name I know that has been synonymous with the Triple J crowd for the last decade, including being up for a few J Awards, and multiple entries into the Hottest 100. But if you played me a song, except for her brilliant cover of ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’, I couldn’t tell you what it was called. Which is a shame, because despite people casually making their way into the venue, at maybe quarter capacity, Lahey played her 30 minutes as if the Riverstage was packed to the bar area. She was having fun with the crowd, and getting everyone to chant along to some songs. Hopefully bigger opportunities await Lahey in 2025, to get her infectious alternative pop tunes in front of more eyeballs.
Alex Lahey – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Thirty minutes, and an entire set overhaul later, the lights dimmed as The Night Sweats made their way on stage, followed by a massive reaction to Nathaniel Rateliff making his way out. There was no messing around on this set, as for the next hour, Rateliff and company smashed out an impressive fifteen song set. Now, fifteen songs might not seem like a crazy amount to some. But I’ve seen hardcore and metal bands play 7 songs to fill an hour. The fact they blasted through that amount of tracks, still with some light chatter throughout, is insane.
I didn’t know much about these guys before they walked onto stage. But the absolutely insane reaction to just their walk out, meant I knew I had to pay attention. After opening with songs like ‘Look It Here’, and ‘I’m on Your Side’, the song ‘Survivor’ played. While I was listening to it, I knew immediately I knew this song, but couldn’t put my finger on where I knew it from. Chalking it up to maybe being a cover of an older song, I let it go, until I got home and Googled the track. The song was used as the season two title credits for an HBO TV show called The Jinx, which I am obsessed with. After ‘Survivor’, was a song just called ‘Intro’, which if I wasn’t already hooked on what this band was putting down, this was the tipping point. The song showcased just about everyone on stage, with mini solos. Something I haven’t mentioned yet, is that this band, including Rateliff, has 8 members on stage. So having ‘Intro’, featuring mini solos for each member, really was cool as shit to see.
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
They absolutely tore through some awesome songs, like ‘Get Used to the Night’, ‘South of Here’, and ‘Hey Mama’. But the best part of their set for me was a song called ‘S.O.B’. The stage performance alone in this song, was probably the best four minutes of the entire night. Something else that was so cool to see, which I am a big fan of, is when musicians play stuff on stage that isn’t their normally assigned thing. There was a guy at the front of the stage, who had a Hammond organ, and another keyboard on a riser next to it. Rateliff jumped up on the riser and kind of did dueling keys, which was so fun to watch. The band’s final song ‘Love Don’t’ sent the set off with the crowd begging for more.
Another short break took place, as the lights dimmed dead on 8:25pm for Dallas Green and the gang to come out to play 90 minutes of arguably some of the best alternative rock around right now. Another fifteen song set, the set featured probably the most perfect run of songs in City and Colours discography, with the set opening on ‘After Disaster’, off City and Colours most recent record, The Love Still Held Me Near. Outside of songs from The Love Still Held Me Near, the set featured mostly singles from the bands 20 year run, juxtaposing the older folk sound, against the harsher, blues rock vibe the later albums have taken on.
City and Colour – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
‘Harder Than Stone’ and ‘Weightless’ provided some throwbacks for the crowd, before the title track to The Love Still Held Me Near played, which the crowd didn’t seem super into. Dallas spoke briefly about the writing process for ‘Mizzy C’, which after hearing Dallas’s explanation for the song’s existence, makes sense why it’s called ‘Mizzy C’, as he wrote the song while being a “miserable cunt”. The pieces fall into place all of a sudden. Dallas told us though he has renounced the miserable side now, and is more of a “joyful cunt”, before launching into the track. As ‘Meant to Be’ started, Dallas told Brisbane “Let’s get emotional”. ‘Meant to Be’ is a special song for me. I heard it earlier in the day, and cried in the car to it. Now I was blessed to cry at the Riverstage listening to it. It’s sometimes the full circle moments that get you. After ‘Little Hell’, they played ‘Astronaut’, which is a song that hasn’t been in the setlist for a while, so this was a nice little surprise.
City and Colour – Riverstage – photos by Bec Harbour
Dallas encouraged the hip shaking to kick off during ‘Hard, Hard Time’, before taking in the moment by encouraging everyone to look at the moon, shining bright over Brisbane as ‘Underground’ played. ‘Underground’ is another song that is incredibly special to me. Both ‘Meant to Be’ and ‘Underground’ are songs from the latest record I really grasped onto in the last few years, so hearing both of them live truly made this an incredible night. Dallas gave a final parting of wise words, telling Brisbane to “Live with kindness”, before ‘We Found Each Other in the Dark’ and and ‘Bow Down to Love’ closed off the main set. After chants of one more song, ‘Lover Come Back’, ‘Sleeping Sickness’, and ‘Sometimes (I Wish)’ positioned themselves perfectly as the encore. While I got to see three of the four songs I was hoping for most (no ‘Coming Home’ unfortunately), Dallas Greene and everyone tonight set the stage for what should be an incredible year of live music for Australia in 2025, and showed City and Colour are not a band to miss if they are in your town.
