LIVE: THE CRUEL SEA with Jez Mead – Perth, 5 June 2025

LIVE: THE CRUEL SEA with Jez Mead – Perth, 5 June 2025
Regal Theatre, Subiaco, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

The Cruel Sea 2025 is a mellower beast than in their initial 90’s incarnation. Hardly surprising, considering it’s been 24 years between albums for the much-loved and important Aussie band, and that mellowness doesn’t make their latest work any less essential – it just means more groove, less crunch.

The new album, Straight Into The Sun, is so damn good, so engaging, and some of their best work, that they’re playing it from start to finish on this tour, before an intermission and a second set comprising a deep dive into the band’s back catalogue – a “concert-oscopy”, frontman Tex Perkins jokes.

In fact, we’ve seen Tex range from happy to gruff over the years, but we’ve rarely seen him as playful and fun as tonight. In fine form, he jokes with audience members without losing the crowd en masse, playfully admonishing himself when he bites his tongue before almost making a joke a bit too risque (“you don’t always have to say everything that comes into your $%^@ head!” – that one was about wearing diapers to get through the long show) and obviously enjoying himself. He’s seriously fun – somebody give him this man a late-night variety/talk show, he’d ace it.

The band are on fire in front of a backdrop twinkling like a night sky of stars, their playing as natural as breathing or putting one step ahead of the other. Again, hardly surprising when you consider that the core of the band – Tex, guitarist Dan Rumour (“captain of the ship and the only one going down with it”), drummer Jim Elliot and bassist Ken Gormly have been playing together off and on since 1987/89. They’re joined by Matty Walker on guitar, taking the late James Cruikshank’s place, and as special guest on keys and percussion for this tour, former Bad Seed Mick Harvey – last seen in town supporting P J Harvey, and before that playing guitar for Kid Congo’s Pink Monkey Birds tour.

There’s dirty blues at the heart of The Cruel Sea’s music, but there’s so much more. A slide guitar country or surf twang here, a reggae inflection there, and so much space in the music that it’s fascinating to watch these consummate players add their small parts to make the end result so, so much more than the sum of its parts.

The stars are gone for the second set, replaced by simple, stark colours that feed from and back into the shades of the music being played. This being a deep dive into the band’s past, there are a couple of surprises. Firstly, their two biggest hits don’t get a guernsey, which caused some grumbles amongst more casual fans as the lights came up signaling the end of the show. Those more invested in the band’s long history had nothing to complain about, though – they played their very first single from 1991, I Feel; the first three songs Tex and Dan wrote together (Down Below, Deadwood and How Low); a clutch of excellent instrumentals; the monumentally smouldering Woman With Soul and the raunch of Delivery Man before climaxing on the dusty dirt track introspection of This Is Not The Way Home, Gormly committing a little bass abuse against his amp.

The encore starts with Tex cracking out a melodica for alluring instrumental The Charmer, goes into the reggae pastiche of Naked Flame and finishes on the even higher note of Black Stick, a hit back in 1993 which is sometimes overshadowed by The Honeymoon Is Over, but is a perfect distillation of the inherent raw sexuality in both the band’s blues influences and their frontman himself.

It was just a handful of years ago that Tex was adamant The Cruel Sea would never saddle up the horses again out of respect for Cruikshank, who passed in 2015. We’re so glad the band revised that edict and found a way to make it work for all involved – especially those of us fortunate enough to be in this audience for such a cracker of a gig.

Support act Jez Mead, meanwhile, played a similarly well received set, even scoring himself an encore in the process.

Setlist:
How Far I’d Go
No Promises
Straight Into the Sun
Waste Your Time
Razorback
Storm Bird
King of Sorrow
You Shine
Anyway Whatever
It Ain’t as Easy

Shadder
It’s Alright (‘Cause She Loves Me)
I Feel
Down Below
Deadwood
How Low
[Instrumental]
[Instrumental]
Baby
Woman With Soul
Delivery Man
This Is Not the Way Home
Blame It on the Moon

Encore
The Charmer
Naked Flame
Black Stick

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries