Project Description

The Living End

+ The Lemonheads + Veruca Salt

+ Spiderbait

@ Red Hill Auditorium

03/03/18

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Karen Lowe

 

The Lemonheads

A lot of times, we sit here complaining that we don’t have a lot of choice when it comes to seeing the bigger bands as they will quite often skip Perth. Then there are those nights where everyone seems to come at once, and you have to make that hard decision of who to go and see and who to miss and unfortunately, Saturday night was one of those nights. For those of us that grew up in the 90s, the line up was a wet dream come true and well worth the trek up to Red Hill Auditorium.

Evan Dando walked on stage a bit later than anticipated and looking decidedly Bohemian and shaggy. He opened with Hospital before the rest of The Lemonheads joined him on stage for Down About It, Turnpike Down and Great Big No. There seemed to be a little bit of tension on stage however, they didn’t let that get in the way of a good performance.

They played most of their hits including It’s About Time, My Drug Buddy, It’s A Shame About Ray, Big Gay Heart, Confetti and finishing with If I Could Talk. It was noticed, however, that they did not play the song that really put them on the radar of most people – Mrs Robinson. While the audience was disappointed that they didn’t play it, for a lot of us there, it was the first time that we had seen The Lemonheads live and they were definitely worth the wait.

Veruca Salt

For most of us there, Veruca Salt was the icing on the cake of this already brilliant line up. They started their energetic set with Straight, Shimmer (dedicated to all the girls) and Forsythia. “It’s a beautiful night! Is it always this beautiful?” Louise Post said to the audience.

Nina Gordon added that her and her brother, Jim Shapiro had been considering moving to Australia. “I’d miss you a lot. I’d have to come too!” Post replied. They also played The Museum of Broken Relationships, Spiderman ’79 and of course Volcano Girls.

This next song is a song from our new album. I had my eyes on Nina for all these years. It’s about being apart from her for all these years and getting back together with my best friend.” Post said as she looked warmly at Gordon. They ended their set with Seether and Earthcrosser.

As expected, their performance was just amazing and you could see the smiles on everyone’s faces as they sang along with the band. It’s the second time that they have been back to Australia since they reformed in 2013 and hopefully, it won’t be the last.

Spiderbait

Excitement was growing as Spiderbait walked out on stage and Kram addressed the audience before taking his seat at the kit. Taking no prisoners, they started out hard and fast with Straight Through The Sun, Outta My Head, Chest Hair and Tonite.

I haven’t had a chance to talk to you yet! I’m really loving being behind the drums tonight!” Kram told the audience. “Everybody make some fucking noise!” as they played Fucken Awesome.

The first time we did this tour, it felt like Homebake but this feels like the Big Day Out! This next song, we played it at the first Big Day Out 175 years ago in Sydney. This is dedicated to our oldest WA fans.” Kram said before Old Man Sam.

They finished their set with 99 Luftballoons (a cover of Nena’s song), Buy Me A Pony, Calypso and of course Black Betty. “Thanks, Perth! You’re fucking awesome! Not sure when we’ll be back again but you can come up and talk to me anytime!” Kram said. Once again (and every single time), Spiderbait put on one hell of a show. They always put 100% of themselves into their performance and it’s so good to see.

The Living End

The Living End refused to take no prisoners either as they got straight into it with West End Riot, Roll On, Uncle Harry (much to everyone’s delight as it’s a song that most of us there had only seen performed live an average of around three times) and All Torn Down.

I don’t know about you but I think that this is a great fucking place to be in right now!” Chris Cheney said. “I’m gonna keep talking to a minimum tonight coz I think Kram said it all. This song is off our new record. It’s called Drop The Needle.” If that song is an indication of what the new album will sound like; then the only question is ‘when will it be released?’

Everyone there knows already how good The Living End are live but every now and then, they will do something that just blows us all out of the water and for Saturday night, it was watching them jam on stage as they did an instrumental and reminded us that they are absolutely phenomenal musicians. “Fuck it. We’re just jamming up here.” Cheney laughed.

They ended their set with Wake Up, White Noise, Second Solution and Prisoner of Society but not before reminding us that Prisoner is now 20 years old (we won’t remind him that it’s actually 21 years old now though!) and successfully making those of us that fell in love with that song when it was first released feel old. “Thank you, Perth! You’ve been great!” Cheney said as they walked off stage.

The Living End

There were only two things wrong with Saturday night. The first being that the show ended far too soon (as it always does when all the bands are just that good) and that Red Hill Auditorium was not packed out like it should have been for such an awesome lineup. Too many people had made the decision to attend a certain red head’s show instead and while Red Hill is one of the most beautiful places to play in Perth, it may have done better at a smaller venue – or another weekend.

While it would have been disappointing for the bands, looking at the flip side; it was all the true fans that were there. Those of us that have been following these bands for as long as we can all remember; those of us that know all the lyrics and those of us that LOVE our rock music. So thank you for giving us 90s teens a night to remember.

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AMNPLIFY – ET