LIVE: JEBEDIAH – 20th Anniversary Tour, Perth, 26 June, 2015

LIVE: JEBEDIAH – 20th Anniversary Tour, Perth, 26 June, 2015
Jebediah with Turnstyle
Friday, 26 June, 2015
The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Review & photos by Shane Pinnegar

Twenty years have gone since Kevin & Brett Mitchell, Chris Draymond and Vanessa Thornton formed Jebediah whilst at Leeming High School, but the foursome might as well have a portrait of themselves in an attic, Dorian Grey style, for all the lack of aging they have endured.

Fresh of face and as bouncy as their best songs, Jebediah hit the marvellous Astor Theatre stage in a state of near-euphoria. And who can blame them after their 20th Anniversary Tour around the country quickly had multiple extra dates added in most capital cities, resulting in no less than three sold-out hometown shows.

They may be on the big stage of this most lavish theatre – “much too classy for us,” Mitchell says of the room where they shot the video clip for Military Strongman back when it was still a cinema – but the vibe is essentially that of a bunch of old friends playing a backyard party full of mates.

Accordingly, the opening act for each night was a band that Jebediah love and played with in the early days – Turnstyle on night one, followed by Red Jezebel and Beaverloop over the weekend. The self-styled “Casio fuzz pop pioneers” played a set that was equal parts nostalgia and new, the catchy indie rock of Cologne and Spray Water On The Stereo taking the thirty- and forty-somethings back to their glory days.

Jebediah’s first set of two ran through their brightest and best with a succession of hook-heavy pop-punk-rockers full of bounce and life proving how diverse their repertoire is after two decades of hits.

Opening with Star Machine – simply wonderful fun, Fall Down (sans bagpipes), Control and the pure pop of First Time, the audience wastes no time pogoing and singing along, while on stage Mitchell the younger commands attention on the microphone, while Brett lays into his kit with the precision of a metronome.

Thornton swigs coconut water and quite literally bounces around the stage, her bass guitar as always looking twice as big as her as she lays down her parts with unassuming confidence. Kevin Mitchell may be the main songwriter and voice of Jebediah, but Thornton is the heart of the band.

Please Leave raises the roof with the entire audience singing and shouting the line, “screw up my life again”, while Yesterday When I Was Brave and The Seven Signs Of Aging show they were never afraid of trying something different from the normal pop-punk thing.

She’s A Comet, the dark underbelly of Animal, and Run Of The Company close out the first set, and while the band take a break a slideshow beams behind the stage, showing how their fashions – and haircuts – have changed over the past two decades.

Set Two sees the band play their debut album, Slightly Odway, in its entirety, and twenty years on it’s easy to see why they succeeded in the first place, not to mention why they’re here for three sold-out nights so far down the road. Their songs are quirky and inventive, full of suburban themes and hooks that just don’t stop. Jebediah never broke up, never announced a hiatus – they’re just real people, who write real songs, and value being true to themselves.

That in itself deserves support.

Favourite Puck Defender sees Mitchell and Daymond get to it with a Blue Oyster Cult-styled guitar duel, and the reaction is so adoring that the frontman is momentarily speechless. “Have we ever told you lately how lucky we are to have you in our lives?” he asks, humbled.

Lino – about cleaning a share house in the hope of getting your bond back, then the aforementioned Military Strongmen, before the punchy, punky Slippin’ Along sees a handful of old wags try to remember how to crowd surf. It’s frenetic and perfectly appropriate since we’re all here reliving the past.

La Di Da Da closes out Odway (sans false ending), before Jebediah return triumphantly for a couple of tracks (Ferris Wheel and Tracksuit) from the debut Twitch EP, Feet Touch The Ground from second album Of Someday Shambles, and the crowd fave b-side Monument to end a stellar evening.
Set List:
Star Machine
Fall Down
Control
First Time
Trapdoor
Please Leave
Yesterday When I Was Brave
The Seven Signs of Ageing
She’s Like a Comet
Animal
Run of the Company

Leaving Home
Benedict
Harpoon
Jerks of Attention
Invaders
Spoil the Show
Blame
Puckdefender
Lino
Military Strongmen
Teflon
Twilight=Dusk
La Di Da Da

Ferris Wheel
Tracksuit
Feet Touch the Ground
Monument

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries