Adelaideans see getting included in national tours as more of a privilege than anything these days.
It was no surprise then, that when prominent Aussie rock trio The Living End (which includes Adelaide native and fan favourite drummer Andy Strachan) announced their Retrospective Tour, it would cause a stir in the city.
Six nights in, their penultimate show saw them playing their third album Modern ARTillery, which holds fantastic singles such as “Who’s Gonna Save Us?” and “Tabloid Magazine”, in full.
By this time, the regulars from the week were getting pretty used to the routine of the shows. DJs playing well-known Aussie rock such as The Vines and Grinspoon, as well as local acts who opened the night.
Followed by a very special montage depicting the history of the night’s album, as well as top stories of the year it was released, in this case 2003.
Among news stories such as the abduction of Daniel Morcombe and political news stories, footage of the recording of Modern ARTillery was shown, as well as the fan reception on the day of release.
Judging from the overall popularity shown by the fan reception, as well as the length of time and hard work illustrated from the video recordings, Modern ARTillery was shown to be nothing more than a brilliant follow up to their groundbreaking self-titled album.
Following this, rather than the trio bursting onto the stage with their energetic opening track “What Would You Do?”, the matured rockers simply walked into the space.
It was a show most liked for its uniqueness, rather than its execution. Unless the album is a masterpiece, there will almost always be ‘filler’ tracks – songs that never really grabbed the majority’s attention.
Despite this, the dynamic of the performance was that songs such as “So What”, “In The End” and “Short Notice” were played to the alternative crowd who enjoyed them.
To counteract this, though, were songs such as “Hold Up”, “End Of The World”, and “Tabloid Magazine”, all of which summoned an almighty mosh from the crowd.
The show ran overtime, which may have either been due to frontman Chris Cheney’s addiction to perform long solos, or due to the long banter between him and bassist Scott Owen.
Either way, the fans seemed seldom disinterested in what was going on in front of them. Despite many of them seemingly turning up to most or all of their shows in the week, the audience showed they couldn’t have been having a better time.
