LIVE: GRINSPOON with PRESS CLUB – Perth, 26 Nov 2024

LIVE: GRINSPOON with PRESS CLUB – Perth, 26 Nov 2024
The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

A band from Lismore and a band from Melbourne walk into a room… in the absence of a joke presenting itself, settle in and I’ll tell you what really happened last night. It all started when the lights dimmed low, the room quickly filled up, and Press Club made a fair few heads turn with a full-on set honed on the road to a razor sharp edge.

This is gig #39 of 44 of Grinspoon’s Whatever, Whenever, Wherever tour celebrating their new album whatever, whatever (no caps required) and it shows: the support band are on fire and well respected enough by the headliners to be given a great light show and immaculate sound.

Frontwoman Nat Foster’s boundless enthusiastic and bouncy energy is like an Energiser Bunny who’s come off their meds, and the band’s angsty, prickly tunes Separate Houses, Headwreck, No Pressure and Cancelled all win new fans. They end a triumphant set with Foster singing Suburbia on one leg, teetering on the crowd barrier with the help of one punter’s hand for balance. Lucky he liked the band or she really would have wrecked her head.

We’re more likely to see Phil Jamieson co-fronting a tribute tour in Perth in recent years, so it’s great to have the Lismore legends back with us tonight. If Press Club’s incendiary set put the frighteners up the headliners at all, it doesn’t show: Grinspoon are confident and in rude form themselves, and what follows is a masterclass in getting it done.

Their set begins with the new album’s lead single Unknown Pretenders: huge riff, huge lights, huge crowd, before DCx3 almost brings the house down early. Nobody here has forgotten that this is one of the songs which broke them back in the days when Triple J played good music, and it goes off, sounding as immense as ever.

A greatest hits selection – Just Ace, Rock Show, Lost Control – proves that there are a LOT of people who miss the glory days of ‘90s rock. Imagine if Triple J still played great music instead of the insipid tripe they currently do. And don’t get me started by suggesting that ‘The Kids’ don’t want rock music any more – as with every Astor gig there are loads of kids chaperoned by excellent parents, and the young’uns are loving every note.

A couple of newies – Never Say Never, Nasty – go down well, before Hard Act To Follow is stopped midway by the frontman – “hey, hey, hey – not at my gig, motherfuckers!” he says, singling out a couple of chaps down the front getting argy bargey with each other. It seems security have been lax – they take a couple of minutes to get anywhere near the problem, and Jamieson is not having a bar of it. “Only love here!” he insists, and the problems are escorted outside for some fresh air to great cheers from the crowd before the song is resumed.

Secrets and Ready 1 are bound to have inspired noise complaints from nearby suburbs, so raucous is the crowd’s participation – and what a crowd. Jamieson notes, “Fuck yeah Astor Theatre – Tuesday night! They said it couldn’t be done – we proved ‘em wrong!”

Foster is invited back to the stage to duet on Underground, then it’s go, go, go through a handful of favourites – 1000 Miles, INXS’s Don’t Change, Chemical Heart, Champion and, after teasing a handful of riffs to Black Friday and the like, More Than You Are – to bring this ripper of a show to a sweaty end. Just ace, indeed. They’re playing Thursday as well… I wonder if there are any tickets left?

Setlist – Grinspoon

Unknown Pretenders
DCx3
Just Ace
Rock Show
Lost Control
Never Say Never
Nasty
Hard Act To Follow
No Reason
ILYSM
Better Off Alone
Secrets
Ready One
The Only One
Underground
1000 Miles
Don’t Change
Chemical Heart
Champion
More Than You Are

Setlist – Press Club

Eugene
Coward Street
Separate Houses
Headwreck
Champagne + Nikes
Untitled Wildlife
No Pressure
Cancelled
Suburbia

 

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries