31 January 2023 – The Triffid, Brisbane – words – DAMIEN – pictures – Justin Gittins
Switchfoot are without doubt the ‘nice guys’ of the rock world. The five piece band from California have been involved in numerous humanitarian projects during the span of their lengthy career and have maintained a very ‘clean cut’ image since their beginnings in the American Christian Music scene.
Their music has always skirted around the edges of pop rock with the occasional dip into harder rock, which has enabled the band to generate a slew of radio friendly hits whilst also landing them spots on some of the world’s biggest rock festival bills.
Tonight’s show, at The Triffid in Brisbane, is an all-ages affair. Given Switchfoot’s vintage, I suspect this is to allow their fan base to bring their high-school aged kids to the show, rather than the band having a direct appeal to a mass youth audience.
It’s a ‘Greatest Hits’ tour, so I am expecting to hear a lot of songs I can sing-along to, and am anticipating there will be plenty of throwing to the crowd from vocalist Jon Foreman.
Before that though, we are introduced to the support act for the evening, Brisbane based emo-punk band, Nervous Light.
Initially the rookies live up to their name, radiating with unsettled energy from the start as they begin their set with a somewhat slow track, ‘Haunt’. It’s an interesting choice to open the night, and exposes the shakiness in the vocals, which leaves the 800 plus crowd seemingly uninspired.
However, the band recovers quickly, pulling out more upbeat numbers such as ‘Patterns’ and ‘Coffee Stains and Picture Frames’, and heads start to bop throughout the room.
A little bit of humble banter about how excited they are to play in front of such a large audience wins a huge cheer from the crowd, who are now beginning to really warm to their new discovery. (Although someone probably should have told Nervous Light it was an all ages show, as a few parents had some new words to explain to their 6-year-olds on the drive home).
The band are tight in their musicianship and display some outstanding blast beats on the drums as well as several hefty screams as they smash out several more songs, including an unreleased track called, ‘Danger’ and the wonderfully named, ‘Bury What’s Left Of My Heart In Your Backyard’.
Whilst I’m not sure an emo-punk band was the best fit for Switchfoot, especially given the audience which looks like it’s made up primarily of Youth Pastors and their families, Nervous Light have the crowd buzzing by the end of their set, and as they wind down their final song, ‘Rope’, they earn a solid applause.
After a brief pause, the lights go down and the silhouettes of the main act can be seen moving across the stage causing the capacity crowd to being losing their shit, sorry, bananas (I too forget this is an All Ages show).
Similarly to the opener, Switchfoot begin their set with a slow number in the form of ‘Beloved’, which acts as more of a prologue to the performance. The song ends to mass cheers, and then the hype really begins as Foreman demonstrates his experience and excellence as a frontman, working the crowd up with a call and response routine.
This leads into early hit ‘Stars’ which now has the entire room clapping and singing along, sending the temperature of Triffid soaring, and it only gets hotter as the set moves through ‘Oh Gravity’ and ‘Hello Hurricane’.
Foreman is such a likable performer and it is clear he has no ego on display, but rather views himself as ‘one of the people’, and this is evidenced through the next song, ‘Bull In A China Shop’, during which the lead singer hops off stage, into the crowd, and works his was through the entire audience, out the back door and up to the balcony where a group of young children and their families have been seated for the night. It’s a beautiful gesture, and is lapped up joyfully by the room.
The showmanship continues with Foreman, now perched above the crowd, engaging in some slick harmonica work before throwing over to the rest of the band for some very impressive instrumentalising.
With the room now pumping, and every brow dripping wetter than babies head at a baptism, Switchfoot turn up the funk playing ‘If I Were You’, which Foreman sings whilst returning back through the crowd and up to the stage.
Perhaps it’s the heat, but the energy in the room seems to drop a little during this number, but again the front man shows his worth by getting the audience to join him in handclaps, which soon has everyone reengaged.
From here the set transitions in to series of calmer, more reflective songs, including ‘I Won’t Let You Go’ and ‘Live It Well’. In some ways, the movement into this bracket feels very similar to the typical worship service at a charismatic church, and with the number of open hands reaching up to the heavens from the members of the congregation, one could easily think they had walked into a Hillsong Conference, only without a drunk Brian Houston.
However, that is the nature of a Switchfoot show. Whilst they are not a ‘christian band’ (whatever that means), it’s very clear in their lyrics and persona that spirituality and questions of faith are significant to them, and this obviously resonates with many of their supporters. It is a beautiful thing to observe close to 1000 people in a room sharing a moment of joint humanity in such a wholesome fashion.
(In fact, I even overheard members of staff saying they couldn’t believe how well behaved the audience was.)
We’re now over halfway through the performance and, after a lull in tempo, which I think, given the heat, was needed by everyone, especially the band, things start to ramp up again through the next three songs, ‘Native Tongue’, ‘Fluorescent’ and ‘Float’.
Things then take somewhat of an unexpected tangent, with Foreman announcing they will be breaking from the set list to play something spontaneous. One of Jon’s strengths, in addition to being able to hype up a crowd, is also to engage and connect through story telling and personal sharing. Several times during the show he shared anecdotes from his previous trips to Australia, and his love for the Australian people, which of course lands well with all in the room. It is during such a story that the band decide to spontaneously play ‘Where The Light Shines Through’, which, we are told, was not part of the official plan for the evening.
Now deep into the night, you get a sense that the audience is beginning to wonder when the San Diego four piece will bring out the big guns, and, as if on cue, Switchfoot deliver, launching into ‘Dark Horses’ which sends the room into a frenzy. Arguably the bands heaviest track, and my personal favourite, one gets images of the early 90’s grunge scene as both Jon and Tim Foreman thrash their lengthy blonde locks over thick dirty riffs. And to make the moment even more special, at least for the older fans in the room, Switchfoot manage to sneak in a few bars of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ between the bridge and chorus of the song.
From here the volume goes past 11 as the crowd hears the instantly recognisable opening to ‘Meant To Live’. You know a song is a hit when you look up and see 500 plus mobile phones out, trying to capture the moment on video.
The climax is then calmed as Switchfoot ease into the final song of the set, ‘Where I Belong’ which rounds out the show in a similar to vein to how it began.
And then the familiar “One more song” chants fill the room!
Of course we all expected this to happen, because whilst they have played most of their greatest hits, there is still one gaping hole in the night that has yet to be filled.
However, in true showmanship, the group suspend the tension for just a fraction longer, teasing us by returning to the stage and performing ‘Only Hope’, which again brings forth the sense that this is a spiritual experience which many in the room are wanting to tap into. With hands in the air and tears trickling down the cheeks of those in the audience who are feeling truly in the spirit, the time is ripe for the grand finale.
As the opening chords to ‘Dare You To Move’ are recognised the electricity in the room lights up every face, no longer in the Nervous Light from the start of the night, but now in a fully satisfied glow that affirms to all this has indeed been the show they had hoped for.
