With his newly released album, Trouble’s Door, Ash Grunwald has been touring Aus along with guests Fat Gold Chain and The Fingers Malone Ensemble. Beginning his Corner show by expressing his fond memories of the venue, Grunwald says that he has so much he wants to fit into the set, it’s like coming back from a trip overseas and trying to tell all your stories at once.
Fat Gold Chain started the evening, intriguing the audience with their stage full of bongo drums. It’s hard to describe the style of music from this two piece, a mixture of African drum beats, over synthesised sounds with vocals reminiscent of 80s love songs, “keep me baby undercover/I wanna be your lazy lover.” Their energetic drum solos were definitely a winner with the crowd, getting the majority dancing with an interesting combination of sounds that seem to fit together perfectly to create dance music like no other.
Next up was The Fingers Malone Ensemble, the smooth vibe of the keys and instrumental sounds made for a chilled set. Malone confessed that most of the songs had a ‘love’ theme, but still made for interesting stories, explaining one track about, “a girl who goes to a warzone and makes love and gets in trouble.” Some other tracks were also thrown in, such as ‘Kicking In Your Own Neighbourhood’, which Malone states is about succeeding on your home area. Before taking time out of his set to explain how the songs are actually performed – he prerecords all instrument sounds, then combines these to create electronic/dance style music.
Ash Grunwald made his presence known on stage to begin what was a somewhat extended set of about two hours. He kicked off the performance with some slower paced tracks, ‘Walking Blues’ among them, showcasing his vocals with few other sounds to hide it.
The crowd was an intriguing mix, with a crazed group of girls in the front row screaming with almost every move Grunwald made, if you think the crowd at boy bands are bad, this lot would beg to differ. He went on to tell the audience, “if you talk to me, it’ll end up in a song, so watch what you say!” explaining how he took the quote, “if knowledge speaks then wisdom listens” from his younger brother for ‘The Demon In Me’, then inviting him onstage to join in on guitar.
Then came the upbeat tracks, with a mix of definite crowd favourites like ‘Love Me’, ‘Money’, ‘Hot Mamma’ and ‘Breakout’. In true Grunwald style, these were combined into a mash-up of slow and fast beats. Another highlight was the cover of Hank Williams ‘Ramblin’ Man’, which enabled Grunwald to show more of his acoustic energy and featured long winded, deep vocals, as opposed to the quick, sharp vocals that many of his songs possess.
Grunwald kept the set interesting, inviting the supports back on stage for a final jam with ‘Rosie’, which turned into a drum solo from Fat Gold Chain and then continued into ‘Just Be Yourself’, where he got the crowd to participate by singing and clapping, remarking “just like old times” after getting the audience to join in. Fingers Malone then joined in for ‘Change’, which lead into a break out of hyped-up, dubstep type remixes. It was an amazing way to finish a set, before the roots singer returned for one last hurrah with ‘Longtime’.
It is easy to see how dedicated Grunwald is to his gigs, literally trying to fit most of his best tunes into one night and enjoying the performance so much it seems he didn’t want it to end. With such a devoted and enthusiastic musician, it’s guaranteed Grunwald’s shows are always going to be worthwhile.
– Cass Savellis
