Live Review: Roger Hodgson

Released 40 years ago, Supertramp's Breakfast In America held the #1 spot on the ARIA Albums Chart for six weeks in 1979 and achieved Gold status. Tonight we gather to pay homage to the band's hit-filled sixth LP thanks to Roger Hodgson and his astonishingly talented backing band.

The crowd goes wild as Hodgson appears on stage, resplendent in a white suit with blue shirt featuring some kind of astrology print underneath. His socks and shoes are also white, and as soon as we recognise that wistful, nostalgic harmonica line from Take The Long Way Home it's clear we're plunging straight into the classic hits for a singalong fest. There are three sets of keyboards up there played by Hodgson, another keyboardist (introduced simply as "Ray" [Coburn] later on) and also multi-instrumentalist wizard Michael Ghegan. 

Six potted ferns are spread out evenly across the back of the stage, lit from beneath and changing colours throughout the course of the evening. Hodgson starts talking to us and then confesses he needs to fill in time, because they are experiencing technical difficulties with their in-ear monitoring system. Fans yell out for certain songs, Hodgson consults the setlist and lets them know whether they will be treated to their various requests. Some in the audience let him know they've travelled down to this show from Brisbane, where Hodgson isn't playing this time 'round, and for this he apologises, saying that they tried to make it happen, but it just didn't work out.  


A random fan wanders down the stage-left aisle and tells Hodgson something we can't hear. As the dude wanders back to his seat Hodgson chuckles, "I passed the audition!" Hodgson then introduces his band to kill some more time, telling us of Ghegan, "You're gonna get a kick outta him!" He then cheekily admonishes some latecomers: "You're late, you missed the best song!" Ghegan teases, "The only song." Then Hodgson tells us he thinks it's best if the band leave the stage and "take five” as we all pray that the cooked system rights itself. 


Hooray! Hodgson and co return to the stage and he tells us they hope to give us some "medicine for the heart” via two hours of musical masterpieces. Introducing Breakfast In America, Hodgson tells us he wrote this song when he was just 19, recording it nine years later and choosing not to rewrite the lyrics for some reason. These lyrics contribute a great deal to this song’s charm - especially the vocal percussion singalong bits - so we're pretty glad he didn't. 


Melbourne does a fine job of the whistling pattern during Easy Does It, which even Hodgson seems impressed by. Hide In Your Shell is by far their most requested song, Hodgson says (and indeed a gent called out for it while Hodgson was bantering through technical difficulties earlier on). 


We then score a couple of songs from Open The Door, which Hodgson tells us he wrote in Brittany, hence the Celtic elements (such as tin whistle, played masterfully by Ghegan). Hodgson encourages us to buy this album, going so far as to say we can send it back to him if we don’t like it before quickly adding he wishes he didn’t say that.

The Logical Song, though! Ghegan seriously has the best job available for saxophonists the world over at the moment and he dances around in a chuffed fashion from the second this song starts, anticipating the feels we'll have thanks to his sax majesty during an upcoming solo. (Yep, so great we had to film it!) Hodgson says these songs were written at a time when he had a lot of questions and felt a lot of confusion. As such, he hopes these songs spoke to us when we were experiencing similar uncertainty within our own lives. Hodgson acknowledges he feels a “heart to heart” connection with his fans.


During Death And A Zoo, drummer Bryan Head does the work of two, often continuing drumming with one hand while reaching over to strike chimes with the other. After Hodgson asks, “Who wants to get up?” Punters hesitate, but then eventually rise to their feet for a dance. The brilliance of Coburn's piano solo during Child Of Vision leaves us gawping and wide-eyed in disbelief. Hodgson then invites “any dreamers out there” to come down front to sing with him. Excited fans rush the aisles, mainly to film some footage to bore their friends with tomorrow. 

Following this number, ushers descend on dance enthusiasts to return all to their seats as Hodgson introduces Fool's Overture, telling us it took him five years to write. And we're not at all surprised since this epic tune is strictly for those with a PhD in composition. 


Since he’s been off stage too many times tonight, Hodgson dispenses with the traditional encore fake-out and launches straight into set closer Give A Little Bit, during which it sure is hard not to fuck up those subtle lyrical variations ("...love to me"/"...love to you"/"...life for you"/"...time to me"). While dancing, smiling at neighbours in the crowd and singing along, Hodgson's "medicine for the heart" is fully absorbed.