It was, by rights, a pub gig. There were beers on stage and off, each and every patron was getting up close and personal and there was a chilled vibe around the venue.
It was more than just a pub gig though – the impressive stage, sound, and lighting display of the New Albury Hotel made sure of that. As Phil Jamieson put it so accurately at the end of Grinspoon’s set, “this has been like an outdoor festival but mini and cute.”
Tasked with the often difficult job of kicking off the evening’s festivities were Perth band Emperors. Armed with an array of pop rock tracks as well as a reluctant audience all too happy to hang back, the band made the best of the situation through resilient banter.
Bassist Zoe Worrall-James made amusing ploys towards the audience; “We’ve come all the way form Perth and you won’t even take another metre forward,” while vocalist Adam Livingston clinked drinks with the keener audience members who voyaged to the front.
By the look of the decent crowd that had formed during soundcheck for Kingswood, it appeared word about the hard working Melbourne band had finally gotten out.
Launching into ‘She’s My Baby’, what followed was a high octane, high energy, speaker shaking and spontaneous set. Seemingly flying by the seat of their pants with no setlist, the band took pauses between tracks to figure out what was happening next.
On one occasion, even asking the crowd what their next song should be. Taking tracks from the Change Of Heart EP, such as ‘Yeah Go Die’, ‘Medusa’ and ‘Ohio’ – which sparked a massive crowd sing along – as well as their Like A Version cover of ‘Wolf’ by First Aid Kit, Kingswood created solid grooves that had the crowd, as well as the security guards, fixated on stage.
Grinspoon are a band that appeals to an array of ages, with a quick look around the crowd that became more apparent than ever.
The older fans in the audience however, were the ones that could be said to be the most rewarded, with the amount of tracks from their back catalogue played well and truly overtaking those from their most recent releases.
This wasn’t exactly a bad thing however, with songs from Black Rabbits like ‘Passerby’ and ‘Emergency’ seeming to miss the mark live compared to former material.
If their show at the New Albury Hotel (otherwise known as Paddy’s to the locals) showed anything, it was that Grinspoon are just as entertaining and dedicated to regional shows as they are at bigger arenas like Big Day Out.
Lead vocalist Phil Jamieson constantly got up close and personal with the crowd, bantered (at one stage singing a few lines of ‘Diamonds’ by Rihanna), as well spraying a freshly popped bottle of champagne over the first few rows.
Some of the older, and arguably most popular tracks, such as ‘Branded’, ‘No Reason’ and ‘Hard Act To Follow’ were well received, and often sparked a full scale sing along, while the addition of ‘DCX3’ had patrons waving three fingers madly in the air – screaming along to the often macabre lyrics.
‘Better Off Alone’ – prefaced by Jamieson as “a little love song for Albury,” – slowed things down for the first time in the entire set. Naturally the band encored with ‘Lost Control’, but nothing else – despite the fact that the crowd had been cheering for ‘three more songs’ not the standard ‘one more song,’ which according to Jameson was “pretty fucking impressive!”
With a set fueled by high-octane rock, Grinspoon played a show that had not only the crowd getting down, but the venue’s bar staff could be seen rocking out in between pouring drinks.
It was a pub gig like no other, that’s for sure.
