Project Description
TEX PERKINS
VOLTA, Ballarat
Feb 8, 2020
(Live Review)
Reviewer: Benjamin Smith
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Tex Perkins doesn’t make blues music. He doesn’t make country music. He doesn’t make rock n’ roll. The music he makes is a kind of jambalaya of all of those things but in truth, Tex Perkins is in the business of being Tex Perkins.
I’ve probably written more about Tex than I have about any other artist. That’s partially because of the density and diversity of his output. In the last few years he’s done shows with Tex, Don and Charlie as well as The Beasts of Bourbon, now known just as the Beasts with the line up of the former now robbed of two of its key contributors. He’s toured his Johnny Cash show and formed the supergroup Easyfever with the likes of his old sidekick Tim Rogers and couple of other heavyweights of Oz rock. He’s done shows with full bands, like the Rubber Band, and performed stripped back shows, like the one he puts on tonight.
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Playing at a little place called Volta, behind a non-descript door tucked away down a non-descript alley in the rural hamlet of Ballarat, Tex brings his usual mix of swagger and sleaze and humour and charm and grit.
He plays a bunch of stuff from different phases of his career, including a three track set from the Cruel Sea days which includes This is Not the Way Home, The Honeymoon is Over and Anybody but You. He also plays the lead track from the most recent Tex, Don and Charlie record You Don’t Know Lonely, A Man in Conflict with Nature. He does a couple of covers, to which he brings something only he could.
One of the great things about Tex’s back catalogue is its incredible diversity. His career seems to have seen him pinball from one gig to another without a lot of strategy, or even consciousness. Consistently he’s brought his own particular ethos, which is as punk as it is country blues, to pretty much everything he’s done. His presence is unique. Onstage, that presence is magnetic. He is a big man, and for that reason alone he is imposing, but there is just something so engaging about his manner. He doesn’t take himself very seriously and, as always, there are dad jokes a plenty.
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Tonight he plays in a simple two piece with the extraordinarily talented Matt Walker. It’s a low-key set which, owing to the size and layout, of the venue has a certain intimacy to it. It’s a packed house and there isn’t a lot of space, but there is a lot of energy and Tex’s people are delighted to be in the atmosphere he creates around him.
Opening for Tex tonight is local country favourite, Freya Josephine Hollick. She plays mostly stuff from her latest release Feral Fusion. Its got a slightly rougher edge played live than it does on wax, but her sweet blend of Australiana slathered in Nashville (though she says most if it found its home in California’s Joshua Tree) is instantly likeable. She has a presence of her own on stage, which is understated but commanding.
With the sad passing of the Karova Lounge it looked like Ballarat’s live music scene might have taken a pretty serious hit, but with Volta rising from Karova’s ashes fans of the artform can be reassured. They’re in safe hands. The sound is great, the space is great, the staff are great.
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Check out TEX PERKINS below
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