Bernard FanningBernard Fanning played the second of two sold-out shows at Adelaide's The Gov last night, leaving the audience with a 'top marks' rating of their own, according to the members on stage.
With room enough to barely slide through the crowd, all beers perched precariously above heads, the five members tucked into their set with Shed My Skin; a somewhat slow and sad track hemmed with haunting violin strings from Fanning's album Brutal Dawn, released in May of this year. Of the song, Fanning said, "That was a really nice uplifting song about being imprisoned for 14 years." And the banter didn't stop there.
The set meandered through Fanning's best-known tracks, including obvious crowd favourites like Wish You Well and Songbird (from his highly successful debut solo album Tea & Sympathy), with the weight coming from lesser known, newly released material. He continues in his strengths as a songwriter, drawing from personal experience - but, did anyone hear about that time Bernard was imprisoned for 14 years?
Guitarist Andrew Morris could have as easily had his name on the ticket, delivering a strong performance and singing solo on two tracks himself. The first was brief and, in fact, a cover-of-a-cover. As the familiar notes of The Beatles' Blackbird wafted through the venue some members of the crowd almost began hugging themselves, until Morris alerted the audience he would be singing it "in the style of James Blundell", with all sense of sentimentality quickly exchanged for full blown laughter.
Some audience members were unable to resist the comedy and desperately needed to join in. So much so, that a duel of heckling started to occur between Morris/Fanning and a mouthy offender; the two were clearly unenthused about the gentleman's participation. In fact, Fanning basically told him to STFU at one point: "Oy, it's not your name on the ticket, mate!" he remarked after one of many loud commentaries on which song should be performed next. With Fanning's response again reducing the crowd to laughter and shared whispers of "shame, mate".
A bluesy makeover of Tell Me How It Ends pleased the audience and was followed by another popular moment of the evening, a timely tribute to Tom Petty with You Wreck Me. Morris' second outstanding contribution was another cover; Joe Cocker's The Letter, showing the audience that Blundell is not his sole imitation.
Probably the biggest highlight was political protest song Belly Of The Beast. Fanning, in his ever-present comedic style, dedicated it "to [Senator] Nick Xenophon". He added (facetiously), "Trump's alright, though," and inspired another bystander to respond in a Trump-esque monotone, "WRONG, you're being rude." Yep, more laughter.
Lastly, and one could argue if this was either the most or least rock'n'roll thing for the band to do; they announced they weren't going to do an encore, adding, "Who's got time for fucking encores?" They instead ran the crowd through a mock rehearsal of the chords that would notate their official last song, signalling that the following three songs would be the 'encore' - but they would NOT be leaving the stage, clear?
There was no apparent disappointment, however, and the last tracks of the night included Wish You Well and Which Way Home - which featuring some Edge-inspired guitar duelling and transitioned in Black Sabbath's War Pigs. Finally, the crowd were left satisfied with Sleeping Rough.
Overall it was final night of triumph for the two-date run at The Gov, with a side of comedy that left the audience in a chorus of claps and cheers even without an 'official' encore.
