Grant Lee Phillips ProfileFrom being part of REM's inner sanctum to time spent as official troubadour of Stars Hollow - what d'ya mean you're not a Gilmore Girls fan? - to his most recent album built around the stunned shock of waking up in Trump's America, Grant Lee Phillips has stories to tell. And he still does so with a relaxed offhand charm.
Matt Joe Gow - New Zealand via Melbourne via Americana songsmith - also engages, and knows the company he's keeping. He's charismatic, with rich woody songs of his own like Down River, but gets caught out when he recalls his usual encore cover happens to be an old Grant Lee Buffalo band song. So he goes for a brave and surprising acoustic run at Joy Division's Atmosphere to finish. Its quiet affecting shades of grey are a strangely complementary contrast to Phillips' usual sepia tones.
You get the feeling Grant Lee Phillips would be happy to smile and chat his way through the night whether the crowd were a dozen or 20,000. He admits he's starting off with a few from that latest record "so we can get to the old depressing stuff", although the political weariness of Walk In Circles and the even more resigned King Of Catastrophes don't exactly encourage happy singalongs.
But there's few better ways to get an Australian crowd onside than trotting out a local favourite, and his wistful strum of The Church's gold standard Under The Milky Way still works a treat. Then it's a fairly seamless stroll through the Buffalo/Phillips back canon, with slightly surreal asides of dimly remembered venues lost in margarita machine explosions. And let's face it, while he just casually throws out tunes like Mighty Joe Moon and Jupiter And Teardrop, they really are songs of quality, delivered with his emotional voice of feeling. The faithful fans who go back that far whoop and holler in recognition.
Phillips calls Gow back to the stage, and Come To Mama, She Say shows a genuine affection between them. Of course, Grant Lee Buffalo favourite Fuzzy was in there somewhere as well, and among all that you find a man who's just having a damn fine time doing what he does.
