Live Review: Something For Kate Enmore Theatre

1994. PJ Keating was prime minister, a quirky little film called Muriel's Wedding was released and Mother And Son ceased its ten-year run on the small screen. It was also the year that three 19-year-olds from Melbourne formed a band called Something for Kate. The band would go on to become one of the most loved and well supported Australian bands over the last 20 years.

On this, their self-proclaimed birthday, the Enmore Theatre displayed the 'sold out' sign, as fans young and old filled the sumptuous venue. With no support act for the night, we were warmed up by a 15-minute documentary from Callum Preston. The quirky video montage of interviews, clips and music served as an excellent entrée for what was to come, introducing each band member as they described their impressions of being in a band so young and touring “like it was always schoolies week”. As the film credits rolled, the band materialised before our eyes and dove straight into Subject To Change and Picards Lament taken from their 1996 debut EP ..The Answer to Both Your Questions.

What was to come would be a rollicking ride through the band's history. The first set included many lesser known tracks and B-sides from their back catalogue, from Elsewhere For 8 Minutes to their latest album Leave Your Soul To Science. That's not to say they were lesser known to the devoted fans in the audience. Many could be seen reciting every lyric elicited from the pen of the masterful wordsmith Paul Dempsey. Big Screen Television, Hawaiian Robots and Down the Garden Path gave the crowd a taste of tracks they may not have heard live before or for a very long time.

Following a short intermission we were blessed with Dempsey on stage, solo on keys, giving us Back To You, the piano version taken from Phantom Limbs, his hypnotic vocals carrying impressively in solo mode. In a great surprise for the audience, Dempsey introduced Sarah Blasko to the stage to perform Deep Sea Divers from their latest opus. The vocals from Blasko and Dempsey complemented each other beautifully and for just a second we could imagine a future direction for the talented duo.

Dempsey, Steph Ashworth (bass) and Clint Hyndman (drums), along with multi-instrumentalist John Hedigan, were in great form. They smashed through 29 songs in almost three hours with perfection. The second set included crowd favourites Déjà Vu, Twenty Years, Monsters and Electricity, but it was tracks like You Can't Please Everybody Rockwell with Dempsey wrestling with his guitar and wailing into his pickups and Working Against Me showcasing Hyndman's solid drum work and aerial stick throwing, that really showed the passion and dynamics of this band.

SFK rounded out the evening with their very first single, Captain (Million Miles An Hour) and the gloriously epic Pinstripe. Something for Kate are a great example of a band that have stuck to their songwriting guns. Never ones to pander to commercialism or indie credibility alike, they have paved their own path to Australian music immortality through extremely talented musicianship, inspired lyrics and easygoing personalities. Here's to the next 20 years.