Live Review: Ed Kuepper

Ed Kuepper

Perhaps it was already planned, maybe a tongue-in-cheek joke at the weather outside, or possibly even a response to the sly request that reached from the back of the room as he walked on stage, but as Electrical Storm bellowed out among the Fly By Night Musicians Club in the Victoria Hall, it felt almost biblical. Flashes of lightning lit the windows as Ed Kuepper strode along the parallel lyrics under the stages grand archway, it couldn't have been planned better but it makes the performance of a shining artist feel that much more distinct.

With this Lost Cities tour debuting its namesake's tracks for most of the room, it's obvious that the set will feature them heavily. Calls of requests from the audience rarely ceased, however, the collective embrace of the record is evident when the requests turn to 'play the new stuff' — the echoing reverb guitar and rich, storytelling lyrics captured the room quickly and entirely. Kuepper happily obliged, his solitary seated presence on stage with electric guitars in arm and a small sample pad for backing, the abstemious stage persona he displays sneaks into moments of cheeky banter alongside the audience. Musically the performance is nothing short of the treasured songwriter at his best, losing himself in song with Free Passage To Mars, The Ruins, and Master Of Two Servants proving particular highlights, with crisp vocals warmly wrapping the large hall with divine sound.

Despite a career that most musicians couldn't dream of and around 50 records in his catalogue, the Brisbane via Bremen muso remains remarkably humble. Taking cues from the room to extend his set well into the two-hour mark and pausing to soak in the choral response for the sweeping exit of Sleepy Head (Serene Machine), his passion has clearly not faltered with age.

Older tracks are reworked, Messin' With The Kid is stripped down to its emotive core, to the point where you wouldn't even realise it draws from one of (if not the) most seminal punk rock records ever written.

As he made his way towards to merch desk afterwards to meet those waited, it was evident that for both sides of the floor the show could have gone on all night, and even after a half-tonne of recordings, we still all hope for a half-century more.