where to start?
For those of you who don’t know Geelong is a city about an hour out of Melbourne. So after work last night Nicky, Julie and I dutifully trundled out there to see DC play at Lamby’s, armed only with a vague geography of Geelong and the name of the street the venue was on. After getting a bit muddled (and ringing Kate) we arrived at the venue which was a bar in a basement of an old wool store.
It was pretty quiet in there, just us and about 40 punters for most of the lead up. We saw Willy, Cameron and Dave wandering around so we figured we were in the right spot. Shortly before the show started Willy was on the stage and bumped his head pretty damn hard on one of the rafters (they were pretty low). We speculated later that this may have been the factor that explained the whole evening.
Once tweety had stopped flying around Willy’s head the band emerged, looking fabulous, Deborah in pink suit mentioned in previous gig reviews. The loose crowd (about 150 people or so) stood back a bit and watched and they launched into Interzone. They were in fine form. I think the might have played Alive and Brilliant next, I know they did at some stage.
Deborah then did a little intro for Radio Loves This, asking if they got radio down there. I think she meant the basement but I few punters thought she meant Geelong (maybe she did) and reacted badly, Geelong people can be like that 🙂
Then they played All of the Above (been a while since I’ve seen that live) with Willy playing an extended solo of the signature riff. It was just ace.
After only a few songs Deborah and Willy started to unplug various things while reassuring Rupert not panic. Deborah then climbed down and pronounced that the sound was awful on the stage. She wandered into the generous space left in front of the stage and invited the crowd to, well, crowd in. She then sang Feathers in My Mouth with just her voice (no amplification) and Willy on the unplugged acoustic guitar. This was just fucking fabulous. I have seen one or two DC shows and heard of a great number more but as far as I know this was a first. I have never heard Deborah sing except through a mic before and it just isn’t something I am going to forget in a hurry.
She then asked what we would like next (not us personally, the crowd, no celebrity status for us). I think Kate and Pez wanted Do You Miss Me When You’re Sober but Deborah choose to play White Roses (which produced an audible moan from all Bitch Listers present). This too was just ace. In the instrumental bit DC grabbed (in a nice way) some punter and waltzed around the dance floor with him. He was quite the gentleman, he didn’t even spill his beer on DC for the whole minute or so of dancing.
During these two songs there were still people talking but Deborah just wandered over in their direction and sang at them and that slowed them down a bit.
Having well and truly captured the crowd they got back up on stage and the whole thing took on a bit of a dance feel. Having had a sleep I can’t remember the songs played but I know that Only the Bones was in there as was I Lay My Head Down on My Pillow and I Cried I Night and Never Far Away with a bit of an island feel to it.
When Deborah reached the end of her set a few songs and much dancing later (although not by me, I am too skippy to dance) she asked if we wanted more. She said the option was to go off and then come back but it was all a bit of a farce and this way a lot of walking was saved.
Then they launched into the much heralded version of It’s Only the Beginning. This was well worth the wait. As someone to who all dance tunes sound like that Blue song (you mean they have more than one dance song???) even I appreciated this wild version of this song. I feel a B side coming on, I wish.
They closed with a spirited version of Man Overboard which is always welcome.
Some bad news for the evening. The Radio Loves This film clip was reshoot at record company request and both Willy and Pez got cut from it. There are plans to nab of copy of the original. More news then it’s available.
And my only question for the night is “but Willy, why can’t I play support???”(in a whingy voice)
cheers
Mark