Eskimo Joe marked the 20th anniversary of their beloved album Black Fingernails, Red Wine with an intimate acoustic performance in Melbourne last Friday night, packing out the Bones Clubhouse for a one-off celebration.
Rather than opting for a large-scale anniversary tour, the WA rock favourites chose to keep things close to the ground with a free, RSVP-only show inside the Clubhouse – a creative space known for blending music, culture and community.
The strictly limited-capacity gig saw fans cram into the venue, creating what organisers described as a hot, sweaty, and joyfully chaotic night celebrating one of Australia’s most enduring rock albums. Eskimo Joe were joined by local acts The Velvet Club and Franjapan, who opened the festivities.
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“[I’m] still blown away by Friday night,” Sam McKeon, founder and owner of Bones Clubhouse told Tone Deaf. “…The joint was absolutely packed with the club, old friends and new. Proper hot and sweaty for Eskimo’s set.
“I was pinching myself during soundcheck – I never thought I’d be watching Eskimo Joe soundcheck in the back of my clothing store,” he added. “From the first song everyone was all in for the set, I was looking around the room and there was some serious smiles from the crowd throughout the the set, everyone was singling along and at one point there were even some lightsabers floating around in the crowd which made absolutely no sense but somehow felt perfectly on brand for the chaos of the night.”
Eskimo Joe frontman Kav Temperley said the collaboration with Billy Bones Club began after a chance encounter in 2024.
“We were playing the Lookout Festival that afternoon and I’d bought a jacket that I thought could be cool to cover in badges and wear onstage. I walked past the Billy Bones Clubhouse and thought, this looks cool. I wandered inside and met Sam. I told him what I wanted to do and he said, ‘Great, let’s do it.’ We pulled out some spray paint and created a design on the jacket that I ended up wearing onstage that very day,” he explained.
The two kept in touch, eventually forming a plan to mark the anniversary of Black Fingernails, Red Wine with the one-off show. To top it off, the band have also launched a limited collaboration T-shirt with Billy Bones Club, with subtle nods to the album woven throughout.
“We worked on a design to celebrate 20 years of the album,” Temperley said. “The result is honestly the best piece of merch we’ve ever created. And to mark the occasion, we thought we’d throw one wild night at the clubhouse and put on a pop-up gig. It was a whole lot of fun.”
