2-19-97.
Review By Max.
First
of all thanks to Shane for the marvellous transcriptions. I couldn't
get to meet any list members at last nights gig due to my arrival time
& having to leave as soon as it finished.
The only RT Shirt ( band
tour) I saw was beside me and he was taping the show on a Sony DAT.
Naughty man. The show was in a small theatre about 20 seats across,
maybe 40 deep plus a balcony. I was surprised no one was searched for
DATs & cameras on the way in as they were in evidence during the
concert. Anyway scheduled start 7:30, actually started somewhat later
by surprise guest Margaret Roadknight. She is an Australian blues/jazz
bit of everything type singer.
After
she finished Loudon came on and soon had most of the audience enjoying
his show. He did a mix of amusing songs (including on about the Hubble
Telescope & one about thinking you are a young man but looking like
shit in the mirror) and some serious ones about parenthood. As a Loudon
newbie I was impressed by his performance. My only complaint was he
went a little long while I was chafing to see RT.
RT was quite funny & seemed to be enjoying himself. He made a
few informed local comments (& started Easy
There, Steady Now playing Waltzing Matilda intro). Told
a tale about SteveVai going to a New Zealand gig from Australia and
thinking it was part of Oz, totally offending his audience resulting
in initial silence from them. For the clothes fetish types, dressed
in Black shirt & pants, black & white patterned vest with
black satin back, Dark beret (dark green?) with a badge on the forehead,
and brown boots (bit hard to see them clearly).
I
don't think I have ever heard him sing so clearly before, even the
RT newbies probably understood most of the lyrics. I was about 6 rows
back so had a great clear view of him & DT (all dressed in black).
DT was also in fine form heckling the audience when they made requests
he didn't like. They knocked back a few requests (Crazy Man Michael
etc) as too hard. Did some stunningly different versions of a lot
of the songs including RT at times mixing solos & breaks from
other songs into the middle. The DT bass work on Ghosts
In The Wind (in particular) was stunning.
All in all a great
performance, so great to finally see him in Brisbane (or Lisbourne
as he kept calling it to stir people up).
Max.
