Live Review: Hoodoo Gurus

This special event plays out like a passage to musical Mecca for fans of Australian rock icons Hoodoo Gurus, who are tonight not only celebrating their wonderful career but also saying farewell to a key member in one of the most perfect ways imaginable.

The Special Exhibition Hall at the Powerhouse Museum is packed with memorabilia from throughout the Gurus’ storied career, with gig posters, flyers, memorabilia, their entire discography, vintage guitars and gear all on display along the walls of the huge space. Fans wander around slackjawed trying to take it all in, making this the perfect setting for this trip down memory lane. For tonight is no ordinary gig – as part of the Vivid Festival the Gurus are restaging their Be My Guru: The Evolution Revolution extravaganza, which finds them reuniting with every single member from their three-decade-plus career and playing songs from every incarnation of this seminal outfit.

Naturally they approach tonight chronologically, so we begin with the nascent Le Hoodoo Gurus – as they were originally called – who kickstarted the whole thing way back in 1981. Seeing the old crew of frontman Dave Faulkner (the sole surviving founding member), James Baker, Roddy Radalj and Kimble Rendall together again is quite staggering, and they soon prove that they’ve lost none of their mojo as they kick into old chestnut Arthur – the fictional account of the bass player the early line-up never had – with perfect abandon. They hit a groove early as they move onto Too Bad, She’s Bad – an oldie only recently recorded for the first time for the new Gravy Train EP – and then the band’s de facto mission statement (Let’s All) Turn On (which sees Brad Shepherd join the fray to add harmonica, and it’s sure weird seeing him sans guitar).

As this gig’s part of the Vivid celebration of light the huge room is awash with psychedelic visuals which are trippy as hell and augment the band’s joyful raucousness wonderfully, and there’s historical reminiscing aplenty between songs which is great because some vintage tracks like Snake Hips have never been recorded before and until now existed only in fading memories (and perhaps the odd bootleg). They smash through Dig It Up and Voodoo You (also from Gravy Train), and by now the nebulous nature of tonight’s line-up has moved us onto the Hoodoo Gurus proper with Shepherd (now with guitar firmly strapped on) and bassist Clyde Bramley now in the fray. By this juncture we’re well and truly mining their 1984 debut long-player Stoneage Romeos, and tracks like In The Echo Chamber and the ever-gorgeous My Girl – the clip for which was incidentally filmed all around this area at Darling Harbour and the old Harold Park Raceway – still sound as fresh as the day they were written.

Another Gravy Train tune, I Love A Mystery, gets an airing before Tojo gets fists pumping and the dancing starts in earnest, there being an extraordinary amount of love in the air tonight. Be My Guru and I Was A Kamikaze Pilot keep the excitement levels in the red, and now it’s time for drummer Mark Kingsmill to enter the fray – it’s his last show ever with the Gurus as he recently announced his retirement after some 31 years in the band, so it’s entirely apt that they welcome his entrance with massive single Bittersweet. Next up is On My Street (strangely out of release sequence, but there’s obviously method to their madness) before they pull out Poison Pen and Death Defying, before continuing the cavalcade of hits with What’s My Scene and the thumping Like Wow – Wipeout.

Now it’s time for tonight’s final personnel change, Rick Grossman taking over on four-string duty, and they just keep dispensing the rock’n’roll goodness as Come Anytime, Axegrinder, 1000 Miles Away, Miss Freelove and Crackin’ Up pass by in a blur of power, hooks and melody, the crowd helping out on vocals on pretty much every tune. We’re having so much fun that time passes in a blur, and suddenly it’s time for the pièce de résistance as all the members ever to hold a station as a Hoodoo Guru come together at once for a raucous re-imagination of the classic Leilani, complete with double drums and bass and quadruple axe power. As you can imagination the result is cacophonous and would have been a perfect ending to a brilliant night, only they do the right thing and return for a couple more numbers – including their pounding cover of Gary Glitter’s Rock’N’Roll Pt 2 – to revel in the adulation being poured at them by the generations of ecstatic fans who’ve gathered for this wonderful celebration and tribute. An awesome night of rock from one of our greatest ever guitar bands – we’ll be their Guru anytime!