Live Review: Things Of Stone & Wood (Acoustic) @ Junk Bar

The Things Of Stone & Wood story is a classic Australian music industry rise and fall... or is it? To most, they're the "one-hit wonder" that defined Melbourne in the early '90s with Happy Birthday Helen. To fans, their first album The Yearning was the springboard for one of Australia's finest songwriters, Greg Arnold. While Helen was a simple love song, the brilliance of Arnold's lyrics were never far beneath the surface - "These three years now just gone / They are the legends of my mind / We both kneel at these rocks / To drink of the memory" is not just I Love You Baby stuff, but after the charts and the TV Hits posters died down, a small but loyal cult of Thingies fans emerged, supporting both the band and Arnold's solo work. 

Arnold is arguably as important as Paul Kelly in telling Australian stories. Lurking beneath the party that is a Things Of Stone & Wood show are biting commentaries of society. 

Across this land everybody settled down / To a night of fitful dreams and strange apparitions / As we tossed and turned we saw ourselves exactly as we are / And not surprisingly we found it frightening / Well you don't choose the place or choose the time / But history's a slippery slide / Be careful of those nasty drops down to the right / When you’re hit it must seem a pretty good choice / For they give all of our malice voice / What do we expect if we won't open our arms / We're all just earrings to the left of our parents / They're all just haircuts to the left of theirs / And we all wonder 'Why do Nazis grow like wildflowers?'

A history lesson wrapped up in a serious ballad? Nup. That's Wildflowers, the rollicking party single from the band's second album that was one of the most-played Australian songs on commercial radio in 1994. 

Or there's the Helen follow-up, Single Perfect Raindrop: 

Well I advertise the scars of middle classness like a shiny piece of junkmail / I've inherited the meanness like a dinner-set kept for family gatherings / But she will scream and tell me all the magic in her magic life / We will laugh at how I'm scared of everything that moves lest it crash / Into me or with me in it.

The songs tell an Australian story, hitting the same nerves that Kelly does, whether it's simple love songs like To Her Door or the frailty of humanity in How To Make Gravy, with numerous Things Of Stone & Wood, Greg Arnold, Tricycle and Swamp Dandies albums full of stories to explore. Greg Arnold's way with words and melody saw him crowned APRA Songwriter Of The Year in 1993.

The Junk Bar in suburban Ashgrove is a curious place for a Things Of Stone & Wood gig (even an acoustic one) given the band's history and fan base, so unsurprisingly they sold out three shows and probably could have done more. On arrival, it's clear why it was chosen though, with a very special night for the forty or so people sitting in the room no bigger than your average lounge room. The crowd is warmed up by Northern NSW singer-songwriter Loren who impresses with his originals as well as a great rendition of the aforementioned Paul Kelly's Gravy. It is just a week before Christmas after all. 

The crowd are as warm and giving as the man on the stage and Loren's love for Things Of Stone & Wood is clearly on show, bringing an anticipation for everyone in the room.

Shortly after his set, it's time for the main act, and Greg Arnold and Justin Brady stroll down the aisle and onto the small stage, ready to play. 

It's all killer, no filler with a set that gave all the hits, but in this room of super fans, there was forty people singing every word, whether it was Rock This Boat or Helen, or album tracks Beg, Heidelberg or Hand Grenade. The night concentrated on the band's two big albums The Yearning and Junk Theatre, given Brady's departure from the band after those records, but with the songs in the canon from that period, there's probably no need to venture much further to create the show. Arnold was amazing as ever and Brady's virtuosic switching between mandolin, harmonica and violin reminds us of why he's one of the country's best session players. 

The storytelling between the songs is as captivating as the songs as the duo's playing. Everyone of course knows the story of Happy Birthday Helen (Greg and Helen are still married and have spent the last eight years in Europe with Helen's job) but we're treated to the boys' near shark attack, the band's Kerry O'Brien chat after naming The Man With The Perfect Hair album after him and many more stories as the well seasoned Arnold had the small crowd eating from the palm of his hand.

One of the night's most poignant moments comes when Brady approaches the mic to tell the story of how the tour came together with Arnold inviting him to join him on the road after he fell on hard times. With his house being destroyed in the 2011 bushfires and then his life as a working musician turned upside down by COVID, Brady ended up sleeping rough in the factory he'd taken a job in to stay afloat. It was obviously emotional and the gratitude that was brimming over to both Arnold in instigating the tour and the fans in turning up was beautiful. There was a wave of emotion in the room from all parties and it was a reminder that the poetry in a band's career isn't just written in the lyric sheets.

The joke about the last song and then the obligatory encore was one shared by the audience, but of course, Arnold and Brady surprise with an encore to the encore, giving that one more piece of 'special' to top off a night that was already one that nobody in the room will forget. 

The best songs come from unexpected plot twists, emotion and meandering journies and the career of Things Of Stone & Wood continues to deliver as history is written. What makes for a successful band? I don't really know. 

But surely a few hundred people turning out to living-room-sized shows to celebrate your work and sing along with a lifetime of songs has to be one definition worth holding close.