Gary Numan’s name is synonymous with 80s electro pop due to his little known number ‘Cars’. That one song has provided a brush stroke over his entire career leaving many a mind confused when you hear Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson call him a massive influence. Delve further past the catchy synth riffs, however and you find yourself in the ‘big bang’ of industrial electronica with those music-minded among us seeing Numan as the godfather of electronica.
Numan live is a rare sight these days, but an equally rarer appearance is that of his support, The Red Paintings. Born and reared in Geelong the band now call the UK home with this show being their only one in Australia for the year.
Lead singer and guitarist Trash McSweeney is resplendent in Russian Cossack attire with violinist Alix Kol and basisst Emma Baker dressed up as geishas. The Red Paintings are known widely for the performance art that accompanies their live shows and during their opening number the band room becomes a surreal vision.
A strange woodland demon stalks amongst the crowd, ducking, weaving and rocking out. Another geisha with a giant paper-mache head has been stripped down to her underwear and a second woodland imp is painting strange symbols on her body.
The band stands seemingly oblivious to this as they burn through their yearning hard rock back catalogue including ‘Mercy Seat’, ‘The Streets Fell Into My Window’ and their brooding cover of ‘Mad World’. Despite a guitar hiccup early in the set, the performance could have easily been the headliner everyone had come to see.
Numan’s band take their places as puffs of smoke start billowing out from the stage and gather over the heads in the crowd. The atmospheric crunches and buzzes of song ‘Resurrection’ off Dead Son Rising fill the air before the man himself grabs his microphone and launches into ‘I Am Dust’ off his latest album Splinter.
Strobe lights incensed the crowd while Numan rocked back and forth, head bowed and face shadowed until finally jumping out of his stupor as they broke into the chorus.
The set mostly consisted of tracks off the latest album including ‘Everything Comes Down To This’, ‘Splinter’, ‘Love Hurt Bleed’ and ‘We’re The Unforgiven’.
‘Cars’ made its inevitable appearance midway through the set showing Numan won’t leave it as his encore crowd-puller; it’s just another song from his 22 album back catalogue. The song felt incredibly out of a place in a set consisting of Numan’s heavy industrial electronic rock and, if you didn’t know he penned it, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it was a cover.
Numan didn’t say much at all during the entire set leaving out all the general chitter chat about how amazing it is to be in Australia. His appreciation was evident after every track as he beamed smiles at the audience made-up of fans who have followed him through the many years and the younger ones just discovering his music.
The mandatory encore contained a re-imagining of his other hit single ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ and ‘My Last Day’. The reworking of ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ buffed away its 80s synth production to a hard industrial grain while still keeping the catchy hook of the original.
Numan’s influence on the sounds that come out of the disaffected youth of 90s is very apparent during his 90 minute set. Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and, to some extent, Korn owe much of their bread to the man forever cursed to be known by laymen as that ‘80s disco guy’.
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