LIVE REVIEW: VERUCA SALT, Perth – 4 October, 2014

LIVE REVIEW: VERUCA SALT, Perth – 4 October, 2014
Veruca Salt – Rosemount Hotel, Perth, Western Australia
Saturday, October 4th, 2014
Review & photos by Shane Pinnegar

The original line-up of Veruca Salt may have had 15 years off, but they were impossible not to love on Saturday night at The Rosemount, proving beyond any shadow of a doubt that they’ve been away far too long.

Former BFFs Louise Post and Nina Gordon fell out spectacularly in 1998 and the latter left the band, and the two did not talk for many years. Proving this was no we’re-only-in-it-for-the-money reunion of convenience, the frontwomen bound onstage hand-in-hand and had as obviously a great time all night as the nearly full bar did.

Opening with a single b-side can be a risky gambit that only the die-hards sometimes appreciate, but one glance at the throng proved One More Page Of Insincerity Please was known to many, and the entire set-list provided singalong opportunities no matter how deep the cuts.

It’s hard to think of another band led by two such talented women who – then or now – can deliver songs that pulse with the ferocity of a pack of wolves one minute, then waft delicately and dreamlike the next.

Post and Gordon both wield their guitars like axes, purring then howling into their microphones, neither of them seeming to have lost any of their range over the past two decades. At their best when harmonising like rock n’ roll angels, they’re a joy to listen to.

Let’s not forget the lads of the band: Jim Shapiro nails down the drums with a Phil Rudd-like metronomic quality, while Steve Lack completes the rock solid foundation on bass, while the girls pretty much alternate singing their songs.

New tracks It’s Holy – saluted on Gordon’s hand-made T-shirt – and The Museum Of Broken Relationships were both well known, with many present singing the choruses, and they stood tall next to the classics, boding very well for the new album they’ve recorded.

Cramming roughly three quarters of both albums they made with this line-up made for a fantastic set-list in itself – Forsythia, All Hail Me, With David Bowie, Don’t Make Me Prove It and Venus Man Trap all kick arse – and the cherry on the cake for long-term fans was a couple of tracks from their Blow It Out Your Ass EP, as well as Aurora, from the Tank Girl movie soundtrack {introduced as ‘a song we recorded but never played again until this tour’) and another b-side in Sundown.

The higher-than-usual ratio of girls to boys in the crowd speaks a lot for the influence that Post and Gordon had in the band’s initial incarnation, and it’s some of the most personal songs ABOUT being a girl that get the most rousing responses from the crowd – Shimmer Like A Girl and a wonderful acapella shot at One Last Time in particular, with the crowd raising the roof, led only by Post’s emotive vocal.

The girls also chat away with some of the front rows – recalling their last visit in ’97, wondering aloud if we like to be called Perthites or Perthians (no), and riff on the inspiration behind several songs.

They’re not afraid to mix things up, either: the irrepressible Seether, possibly their most well-known song, starts with a jolt and a ‘WOW’, the whole crowd and band bouncing out of control. The slower, almost ponderous and feedback-drenched 25 saw near silence in the room. Had they lost the crowd? Nope – they were just mesmerised and erupted as the song climaxed.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any better, the encore kicked off with the enormously popular Shutterbug and alt-hit Volcano Girls getting the whole room bouncing again, before Victrola and Earthcrosser shut down a great night.

As what Post calls their ‘last nostalgia show’ before they release the new album and start including more new material at the expense of the older tunes, this was an absolute triumph and sends a clear message: Veruca Salt are very much back, baby.

Set list:

One More Page Of Insincerity Please
Straight
It’s Holy
Forsythia
All Hail Me
Spiderman ‘79
One Last Time
With David Bowie
Don’t Make Me Prove It
Stoneface
Wolf
I’m Taking Europe With Me
Venus Man Trap
Aurora
Sundown
Museum Of Broken Relationships
Seether
Shimmer Like A girl
25

Shutterbug
Volcano Girls
Victrola
Earthcrosser

Category: Live Reviews