Project Description

GRINSPOON

 “Chemical Hearts” Tour

@ Adelaide Entertainment Centre

26/10/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Caine RexEverything

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Grinspoon // Photo – Alchemi Glow

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Grinspoon occupy a special place in my heart.

As a music-obsessed teenager during the mid-nineties, my musical education came solely from RAGE. Growing up in a regional town in South Australia yet to receive Triple J on the radio, that legendary late night anthology of music videos introduced a cavalcade of incredible acts old and new. Like a dry sponge in a spillage, I soaked up everything RAGE had to offer. My knowledge of Australian music was paltry before those nights staying up to watch RAGE. It was limited to pub rock favourites Cold Chisel, Noiseworks, Screaming Jets and Midnight Oil, or radio friendly indie popsters like Frente and Ratcat.

RAGE changed the game for me. It opened my eyes to the current generation of musicians and a bold new sound influenced by grunge and alternative from the US, but infused with an unmistakable local flavour. These new Australian bands were contemporary in their attitudes and the songs they produced felt were at the vanguard of modern music. They played for people my age.

Grinspoon were one of the first acts I took to heart during those formative years. The band’s breakout single ‘Sickfest’ was a regular staple of the Friday night “latest music” rotation along with songs from You Am I, Spiderbait, Ammonia and TISM. All became huge influences, but thanks to Grinspoon’s ‘Sickfest’ video, iconic first album “Guide To Better Living” and a memorable performance on Saturday morning’s Recovery in 1997, the young Lismore rockers got right under my skin.

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And they never left.

It’s worth mentioning this, because Grinspoon’s current tour is a retrospective affair, or rather more fitting, a victory lap. Coinciding with newly released compilation LP “Chemical Hearts“, it’s clear the band are celebrating the lasting impact they’ve had on the Australian music landscape and are inviting fans to celebrate with them.

Hence my nostalgia. If Grinspoon are looking back with fond recollection, so shall I.

Saturday night’s triumphant show at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre marked the sixth time I’d seen the Grinners, but bizarrely, it was my first headline show. Five fantastic Big Day Out appearances during the Noughties conjure wonderful, if somewhat hazy memories of rock riffs, mosh pits, mist tents, crowd surfer sneakers to the face and one particular moment in 2005 when someone spewed down my leg before launching into the chorus of ‘Don’t Change’.

Great days indeed, but this was new ground for me and I felt lucky to finally experience these Australian rock legends in all their energetic glory at this evolved stage of their career. And bloody hell, what a treat it was. Grinspoon are older and wiser than those heady, irresponsible days of the 90’s and 00’s and on Saturday they proved in emphatic fashion they’re also infinitely more professional.

It’s natural that after twenty five years of writing, recording and touring together, childhood friends Phil Jamieson, Kris Hopes, Pat Davern and Joe Hansen would have their live performances down to a fine art, but my god, their stage show was a gobsmacking, relentlessly confident display of rock and roll excellence.

No matter how entertained the packed audience of hardcore, devoted fans were by solid support slots from Bugs, The Gooch Palms and local heroes The Hard Aches, they were taken to another level by the headliners, who pulled out all the stops to make it a show to remember for the rest of everyone’s lives.

This wasn’t to be some starry-eyed trip down memory lane, but a full bodied, pedal-to-the-metal power through ninety minutes of platinum minted Aussie rock bangers.

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Grinspoon // Photo – Alchemi Glow

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As the venue lights dimmed, a pink heart pill throbbed on a stage curtain and the crowd buzzed into life. Twisted strains of Scott Joplin’s jaunty vaudeville classic ‘The Entertainer’ morphed into discordant feedback and exploded across the hall as the curtain dropped. Stage lights winked alive and Grinspoon got the cheering crowd bouncing with the instantly recognisable crunching riff intro to cult hit ‘DCX3’.

It was the first Grinners staple in a bulging set utterly jam-packed full of hits, one after the other, which worked those of us in the crowd to a manic fever pitch.

’Sickfest’ made an early appearance, much to my glee. It was still immediate and vital and slightly threatening twenty four years after I first heard it. In fact, none of Grinspoon’s songs have aged, especially when played live. On stage, two decade old classic ‘Black Friday’ was tight, fast and furious and sounded as though it could’ve been released last year. Judging by the entire audience singing along to the lyrics, this 1998 tune lost none of its appeal.

This sense of timelessness was apparent as the set went on. Early standouts ‘Pedestrian’, the sublimely catchy ‘Just Ace’ and ‘Ready 1’ were all reinvigorated by this mature version of Grinspoon, adding a bulkier and more frenetic edge to these former adolescent agitators. Gone is that brattish impudence of youth, replaced by immaculate craftsmanship you’d expect from a band who’d played together for so many years. Their cohesion as a unit was astounding, a testament to hundreds of shows played with passion and dedication and half a lifetime spent together through incredible highs and also quite a few lows.

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Grinspoon // Photo – Alchemi Glow

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Dapper looking Davern wielded his guitar like a bluesy maestro, having long ago perfected his bruising riffs and soaring solos. Hansen’s dense bass lines shuddered through everyone’s bodies with a sludgy, grunge-like funk and even after all these years, his God-tier intro riff to ‘Champion’ still made a hall full of people lose their minds. Hopes battered the ever-loving shit out of his drums without remorse during blistering songs like ‘Better Off Dead’ and honestly, it’s little wonder the kit didn’t collapse under the weight of his uninterrupted aggression.

And just as he’d always been, Jamieson was the radiant star shimmering in the spotlight. It was great to see hitting his forties hadn’t slowed him down. Looking reenergised and genuinely beautiful in pristine white jacket and pants he prowled the stage, grinning and gurning, exciting and cajoling the crowd, sweet talking us between songs and attacking the mic stand like some wondrous, fantastical beast.

And that voice! How is it still so powerful after so many years? Something about it still hits you right in the chest like a speeding juggernaut. There’s no doubt Jamieson possesses one of Australian rock and roll’s greatest vocals. He’s our answer to Roger Daltrey, capable of incredible range and fury, but also adept at quieter moments of vulnerability. Jamieson was the best I’d ever heard him, roaring through ‘Lost Control’ and ‘No Reason’ before switching easily into tentative and heartfelt renditions of ‘Bad Funk Stripe’ and ‘Better Off Alone’.

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Grinspoon // Photo – Alchemi Glow

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The show ended too soon with crossover 2002 hit single ‘Chemical Heart’ and ‘Don’t Change’, Grinspoon’s famed INXS cover, and a short encore featuring brilliant, brutal monsters ‘Champion’ and ’More Than You Are’. The staggering spread of seminal songs left all of us in the audience visibly affected; giddily happy and warmly bathed in fuzzy nostalgia for the days when we were young and dumb and carefree. We’d spent the evening moshing, punching the air, dancing and singing until our legs ached and our voices were hoarse. We’d been spoiled, truly blessed to bear witness to a tremendous exhibition of musical genius and exhausted by that remarkable oeuvre of iconic songs from our younger days.

While it might’ve initially read on paper like a simple greatest hits set, the reality was far more thrilling. It was a reminder that this bawdy band of lifelong mates has a deep and voluminous presence in our local music history. What this “Chemical Hearts” show cemented for me was the overall importance of Grinspoon on Australian music during the past thirty years. You cannot underestimate the legacy they’ve built with all these magical, magnificent songs.

From the moment they began, the four boys from Lismore have achieved remarkable critical and commercial acclaim, somehow managing to saunter a fine line between mainstream success and street cred and never teetering too far in either direction to lose their place. Fiercely loved by a broad scope of people regardless of age, gender and upbringing, they’ve remained untroubled and unfazed by the changing climate of music over the years, or bothered by the trends and demands of a fickle, superficial industry.

Basically, the Grinners have always rocked to the beat of their own drum. It’s that confidence in themselves which has permanently endeared them to multiple generations of Aussie music fans. Their hits are forever affixed to cherished memories in the minds and hearts of all us 90’s teens who were privileged to grow up with the Grinners on our stereos. They soundtracked the best times of our lives; our school recesses, our parties, our romances, our laughs over backyard bonfires and beers with best friends and, of course, our favourite Big Day Outs.

Having by now eclipsed their peers in terms of longevity and/or success, it’s not a stretch to suggest in 2019 that Grinspoon are the most successful Australian act from the 1990s. And after Saturday night’s extraordinary excursion down an eye opening career of bonafide rock and roll bobby dazzlers, it’s time to start talking about Grinspoon being among the greatest Australian bands OF ALL TIME. If one thing is to be taken away from this tour, it’s the evidence needed to validate this suggestion.

Boys, don’t change. You’re the champions. You’ll always thrill us kids in the rock show.

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Check out Michael Gow‘s gallery of the Melbourne show here

“Chemical Hearts” Tour Dates

Oct 31 / Waves Wollongong, Towradgi

Nov 1 / Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Broadmeadow

Nov 2 / Horden Pavilion, Sydney

Nov 7 / The Star Gold Coast, Broadbeach

Nov 8 / Fortitude Music Hall, Fortitude Valley

Nov 9 / Fortitude Music Hall, Fortitude Valley

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