check out the photos of the gig

SHOW ONE:

Support was a chic from melbourne, kelly someone. Singer/guitarist with bloke guitarist accompanying. Had a nice voice, nice songs, the only downfall was the guitaring - two rhythm guitars, would have been nice to see a bit more than just chords from both.

They played four songs, during all of which the crowd were the standard support band crowd - loud. Even the so-called lovers of fine music sitting front and centre, who I suspect are more lovers of fine wine :p

The whitlams came on early. Tilleys shows usually start at 9, instead the whits started around 9. Started with duffy's song, good to see that out of the way early, although I guess it was a good one to get the FOW choir warmed up nicely. and for the record, he definitely sang "i was the ship" the last time around.

The second song was a newbie, the last life. Might need another listen or two before I get into it, but it sounded more eternal nightcap than love this city, which is a good thing.

Third cab off the rank was the ballad of lester walker. An old one, but the first time it had been played live since I'd been seeing the whitlams.

Coming into this gig I wasn't sure if hearing lester would be a good thing or a sad thing. Call me crazy, but I'd give anything to have seen stevie plunder play live and for me, there are no whitlams songs that are more stevie than lester walker. When I heard this was now being played live, I thought maybe it wouldn't feel quite right. But then I hadn't seen jak.

While it's great to hear the stevie songs played, generally they now take on the feel of tim's whitlams. But not lester, not with jak. I didn't have time to wish it was stevie playing, jak just blew me way. It's such a great song, with huge potential to be completely screwed if played by the wrong band. Tim's whitlams could have been the wrong band, but new guitarist Jak Housden did this song justice I think. Tim's vocal didn't fit quite as comfortably, but hey, I'm certainly not going to complain about having it played.

Tim intro'd song four with "now we'll play something off an album you might actually own" - laugh in their faces, complete with gubby organ solo of course.

The first piece of tim commentary didn't come until between four and five, and then it was to inform us that he was having an alcohol free night... despite the glass of red in his hand, apparently... And later to inform us that the reason for the three week break between us and the rest of the tour was that they forgot canberra. until they got to wagga. They remembered wagga. And forgot canberra.

Make the world safe and melbourne were as soppy as usual, followed by another love song and another newbie called breathing you in. I think I liked this one, in that kind of charlie 1 way.

No aphrodisiac came next with a mini extended outro - buggered if I can remember what it was, so it can't have been too memorable :) This was followed by "another song that starts the same as no aphro" which was obviously, to all those musically inclined fans, charlie 3 :p How did we know this? Well, the D minor chord followed by ... "a letter to you on a cassette"?... thankfully he was just teasing, we didn't have to sit through two renditions of it :)

After charlie 3 we were introduced to Jak the new guy, replacing ben the old guy. With all due respect to ben, jak is a good addition to the band. He'd been taught a few new songs for canberra, one of which was "a favourite amongst the fans, so I'm told. That's because they're a sad bunch of people." (You'll find a way).

This was followed by a rebecca favourite, end of your world. It seems jak wasn't the only one to be trying a new role in this song - warwick had the lyrics taped to his microphone stand :)

Usually, tim informed us at one point, in a six week tour you can expect around week four for band members to be wearing band merchandise on stage, and it's usually the drummer. Tonight, however, night one of the tour, jak the guitarist was breaking the trend and proudly donning the "poofters, I love em" t-shirt.

This commentary was followed by blow up the pokies, then another newbie in the lights are back on.

Gough was next, followed by I make hamburgers, then because they felt like rocking (and because it was preplanned on the setlist) we were treated to yet another stevie plunder tune and another rebecca favourite in following my own tracks.

The fourth of the newbies was a song called singing kate kelly to sleep, which as tim told us is essentially tim rewriting history from a femnine point of view - this is the story of the sister of ned kelly.

Next was Thankyou. Gubby's organ solo was only a few notes in before terepai started drumming against the side of the organ. gubby grabbed the stick, started bashing away at the cymbals, lost the stick. a fight ensued between terepai and gubby for control of the hitty stick and things to hit, all culminating in tim coming back into the vocal for the "[two bar rest] thankyou" without the two bar rest - needless to say warwick stopped in his tracks and pointed an accusing finger and terepai and gubby pissed themselves, ... was just too funny. tim blamed it on terepai and gubby, but we know better :)

You sound like louis burdette was next beginning with the opening riff, then poor warwick was left to solo bass while tim scrambled around for a drink - and the lyrics. Returning to his keyboard, he began... "had a little bit to drink / I want to go outside [confused look, as if to say to the crowd "that's not right, somehow, is it?"] Had a little bit to drink / there's a bar out east [several bar instrumental solo, tim finally remembers some lines] Had a little bit to drink / there's a little thing I want at a do out east / hey you lose that friend before we go anywhere what someone might see you alone / stop talking about the years / cos you sound like louis burdette" the crowd were enjoying ourselves to no end, but unfortunately he seemed to master the rest of the song ok, not even being surprised to hear the same lyrics come around again.

The encore consisted of charlie 1, the moody jews version as performed on the ABC tv show Love is a Four Letter Word with tim, terepai and warwick. This was followed by an impromptu techno version of charlie 2, again with tim, terepai and warwick, joined halfway through by jak and gubby. Terepai was stuffing around between songs with a techno drumbeat, tim started playing, realised what terepai was doing, they looked at eachother and decided to run with it. It was fairly fast, with a full techno drumbeat, full piano accompaniment and a bit of bass, before the rest of the band joined in. it worked really well and sounded great with the drums and full piano arrangement.

Another newbie in the form of royal in the afternoon, followed by there's no-one to close the night.

The only deviation from the setlist, despite requests for 1995 (that was never going to get a run), happy days (see above) and where is she, was to have coming up for air omitted unfortunately.

SHOW TWO:

Kelly and co opened again, this time having time to play six songs. The two extra songs got a bit less strummy in the guitar area, but it's still disappointing when someone who can write good songs and sing nicely thinks you have to thrash an accoustic to get a good sound out of it. still, the songs were nice and for two songs the guitar accompaniment was nice too.

It seemed like no sooner had kelly left the stage than handsome boy modelling school came blaring out the sound system. First song off the blocks tonight was love this city - I like this trend of getting the dodgy songs out of the way early. This was followed by the last life, which I'm already very much in love with - it's amazing the change a day makes. This song has been compared to Tori Amos, and I'd have to agree that that's a fairly good description.

Duffy and Kate Kelly were next - kate kelly might take a bit of time I think, and even then I'm a little reluctant to commit...

Tim informed the crowd at one point that it was going to be a long night, so if anyone was planning on seeing a quick show then getting home, think again. "We're here for us, not for you".

Laugh and hamburgers, two good live songs, were followed by end of your world. I am so much in love with this song, and this was probably the best live rendition of it I'd heard. from where I was standing tonight the mix was perfect all night, which helped things.

Jak was introduced to the canberra audience, and got to show us his stuff with the song he played the solo for on the album - time. Jak is certainly a great guitarist to watch, you certainly couldn't say he didn't love playing. And he plays so well, too, that I just love watching/listening to him.

Soppy love song number 1 for the night was make the world safe, followed by an insightful comment by tim - about watching a movie where "every ten minutes the actors froze, and the chorus of that song was played - has anyone seen moulin rouge?" A lengthy discussion on moulin rouge and tim's viewing of it as dangermouse's date ensued, with the general outcome that tim wouldn't mind having the movie explained to him sometime. "has any of the band seen it?" warwick had. "what about you, jak?" jak, he's so cute, walks up to the mic, looks at the crowd, looks at tim, and says a quick confident "...nup" and returns to the back of the stage. After deciding that tim didn't quite know what to say to that, jak informed us that "it's the best movie I've never seen".

Another song tim thought should be played in a movie every ten minutes followed, breathing you in. this song is very charlie 1-ish, and very lovely. So far two out of four newbies I'm already in love with.

No aphrodisiac again had a brief extended vocal outro, this time with a melodic rather than lyrical varation. I thought it sounded quite nice, too.

After aphro jak left the stage for charlie 1. As they were about to start tim noticed gubby still on guard at his keyboard, and informed him that "you don't play this one gubby". Gubby left, the crowd responded with "oooohhhhhh". "it's not my fault, he just read the setlist wrong. He doesn't know this one!!" tim protested. Charlie 2 was listed on the setlist as buy now, resulting in more confusion for jak and gubby who weren't quite sure what song it was supposed to be... Tim said that's what you get when your band don't own the albums. "that's what happens when you get the best. we have the best musicians here, but they're not music fans, they're human. ... yes. mmm. ... ok, let's play a song I think..."

After last night's techno terepai version of charlie 2, they'd obviously decided to run with that idea. Some people compared it to cottco's dream mix. The first night it was remotely similar, only better, but they (the band) obviously had that remix in mind when they rehearsed it for tonight. No jak or gubby tonight, and tonight it was warwick holding it all together with that amazing bassline rather than terepai like last night. Tim even did cottco dream mixed vocals which, incidentally, sounded very cute - if you've ever heard someone try to do remixed vocals live, you'll know it's pretty funny to watch, especially if the vocals they're trying to recreate have several lines running over the top of eachother... even the ending got given a "if you don't believe me lieve me lieve me lieve me". it did sound great live both ways, but i preferred the full piano accompaniment of last night over a techno drumbeat, rather than the fully remixed feel.

Coming up for air was on the list again, and tonight it was played. Intro'd as per usual as their best b-side, a song that should have been on the last album but tim wasn't thinking straight when he left it off, we all knew what it was and responded with approving noises. This was followed by tim informing the rest of the audience that half of the front three rows were made up of sydney people who, tim thought, should have stayed in sydney so that more canberra people could have come ("don't any of you have jobs?!") - followed by louder approving noises from the rest of the crowd.

My thoughts on the matter? Divided. I love having the FOWs here, I love catching up with friends from sydney that I don't see except at whitlams gigs, but tilley's is only a 200 seat venue and I've always been a proponent of the more live music for canberra campaign. As much as I love catching up with people, and as much fun as it is seeing your favourite band with a group of friends who all share the same love, I stand firm in my position that the more canberra people who get to see these bands the better - especially if someone that misses out hasn't seen the whitlams before and might have fallen in love with them on seeing them. But this is a review, so I'll leave my rant alone.

After coming up for air Jak commented on how fast it was. Tim disagreed, saying they actally played it slow. After a few rounds of "was fast" "was slow" "was fast" "was slow" tim counted the beat to terepai and asked him what tempo it was (cos drummers know these things) and guessing "around 108bpm, I'm right, aren't I?". Terepai studies his watch for a bit, listening, thinking, tim eagerly awaiting confirmation that he's right, and terepai reports back "twenty to ten".

Blow up the pokies was followed by another song by the wonder from narrabundah whose songs, in my opinion, are the best of a whitlams live set. The more stevie songs, the better the night will be. This one is called shining, and was sung by tim at stevie's funeral back in 1996. He said that day that he would never sing the song again, but has since decided it was too good a song not to play. He apologised for the lie, but he was right - if he's ok with playing it, it's definitely too good a song not to play.

Thankyou was next, followed by louis. Watching eagerly to see if tim had learnt the words since last night, I was a little disappointed to hear "had a little bit to drink / there's a little thing I want at a do out east" until it was followed by "oh nothing to emotional my good miss, I ... [pause] ... fuck. [crowd prompts him the words] nothing to emotional my good miss, I couldn't be serious in a room full of jackknife eyes / stop talking bout the years cos [confidently] you sound like LOUIS [chorus] I'm chewing ice and grinning / I'm spewing up and spinning / it's billiousness as usual in my corner of the kitchen / uuu ... fuck, I'm having problems with this one!! [long pause, not as long as last night] I'm chewing ice and grinninng, spewing up and spinning, it's billiousnessnesssnessnessnessnessnessness [confused lost look] it's billiousness as usual in my corner of the kitchen [confident look] hey you [etc]"

Warwick didn't have his piece of paper for end of your world earlier in the night so he'd obviously mastered his lyrics, and techno/cottco dream mixed charlie 2 had obviously been given a bit of rehearsal time, but I think maybe a bit of time needs to be spent on the bus back to syds reading the inside of the album covers...

Louis is also the song in which gubby used to have a huge long organ solo, which I loved, but that's been stolen by jak. At first I thought nah, should have left it to gubby, but he just takes a bit of time to warm up - they gave him about 5 rounds in which to solo, and it just kept getting better. he's good. He's very good. Tim and gubby started fanning him down with the towels towards the end, which finished up around jak.

At the end of the song tim asked what he was thinking while deep in thought there. "I was thinking about moulin rouge, tim. I think I should see it, otherwise it will always be the best movie I never saw" Tim acknowledged that "I thought it must have been something important to play a solo like that" mmkay, tim.

Melbourne and made me hard finished the night, before a 5 song encore.

They came back onstage to requests of 10 or 11 drink clown. Tim informed the requester that "we've already got the encore written on the setlist. Sometimes we welcome requests, sometimes we don't. I guess it's just one of those times." The lack of requests taken was fair enough, considering over the two nights they'd played every song jak knew how to play - if it wasn't played, it's because it couldn't be.

He told the girl though that this was a song he was sure she'd like, she looked like a teenage desperate. "This is what you've got to look forward to". Twas you'll find a way, followed by another stevie classic, lester walker, another song in which rebecca is now so much in love with both stevie's songwriting and jak's guitar playing. Gough was next, then royal was dropped and they went straight to charlie 3. There's no-one was included as a final song, sounding quite nice for a slow song that doesn't have much live potential. nice soft intro creeping in, and while on the album I think the piano makes the song, live it's the organ.

Overall it was a great night. I think tonight is probably the best whitlams set I've seen so far.

SETLISTS:

WHITLAMS - wednesday

WHITLAMS - thursday