LIVE: POKEY LAFARGE – Fremantle, 17 May 2025

Shane | 22 May 2025 | Reply

LIVE: POKEY LAFARGE – Fremantle, 17 May 2025
With Lucky Oceans – Freo Social, Fremantle, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

Former Illinois boy Pokey LaFarge (Andrew Heissler to his mom, who bestowed the nickname Pokey upon him as a child) could do mostly no wrong (we’ll get to that) at Freo Social this weekend, delivering a rollicking set of Americana heavy on the Appalachian and N’Orleans good time folky blues to the faithful.

Our own (adopted) Grammy winner Lucky Oceans opened the night with his The New Darling Ranges, delivering a great set that got the throng in the mood, then the band took to the mostly bare stage, amps festooned with vases of flowers, drums & double bass to the right of LaFarge, guitar and keys to the left, and are as watertight as a Mississippi paddle steamer.

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It’s Pokey’s fourth visit to Australia, his first to Perth – he’s quickly corrected by a pedantic audience member that we’re actually in Freo, not Perth, so whether he understands the distinction or the abbreviation or not, that’s what he refers to us collectively as from that point on.

The set list is passionate, exuberant, joyous and causes spontaneous outbreaks of dancing hither and thither, whilst the rest of us sway, tap, stomp, clap, sing and holler.

There’s a couple of songs delivered solo, and it’s in these quieter moments that the energy shifts a little.

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Someone calls out for Fuck Me Up, to which LaFarge sheepishly admits that he has never played the song live – the one most fans would surely be most familiar with, the one with 4.7 MILLION views on YouTube. “My effin’ up days are long since passed,” he explains, declaring his sobriety and faith. “That’s why I don’t play songs like eff me up any more – you can go home if you need to. Thankyou for listening to my story.”

It’s all a little too ‘testify’ for our tastes – and the crowd noticably thins. Far be it from me to criticise anyone’s faith, but I’d be lying if I said we weren’t disappointed at him not playing his biggest, most familiar tune. Change the lyrics if it makes you happier, mate – make it “take me up” as a kind of spiritual if you need to do that to satisfy yourself and your audience, but get the job done.

That aside, it’s all gravy and a wonderful night of celebratory music, and for that even I will give a “hallelujah.”