While still being relatively unknown in Australia, Joel Plaskett has a loyal following that converts new attendees tour-by-tour. With faultless performances and brilliant stage manner, there’s no doubting his ability to win over audiences on his travels, making annual excursions to our shores over the last three years, initially as a part of the Great Escape Festival in 06 and 07 and now this year’s tour as a part of the Sunshine & Clouds revue with Tim Freedman and Old Man River.
Tonight he plays a sideshow at the Vanguard, in Newtown, one of the many social hubs of Sydney’s Inner West, with support by Dave McCormack, Sean Carey and Matt Corby. Yes, Matt Corby…of Australian Idol fame, kicking off by covering Evermore…of the O.C. fame. I apologise for these references, but this is actually the case. Now I’ll get off my alternative ‘shun the mainstream’ high-horse and admit something – he’s not bad. His Buckley-esque moans and folky guitar make for good listening, it’s chilled out, comforting and good background noise for those snacking on dinner down the front of the classier end of the Vanguard. In a way, if he didn’t have the Australian Idol tag slapped across his forehead, it’d be a lot easier to speak highly of Corby, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that if he’d waited it out and gathered a catalogue of songs instead of going on national commercial TV that he would have garnered a bit of an underground following. He’s got his 15 minutes so far, and he sounds like he’s got the ability to do a lot more than just ride the Idol gravy train.
Following Corby is Newtown local, Sean Carey; another sweet-voiced guitarist who impresses with his soft but powerful voice. He copes well with being laughed at for rhyming macaroni with TONI and serves a nice dose of tight melodies and good songs. If anything, it’s all a bit sameish with limited range outside of identically pitched moans and croons amongst three chord guitar anthems…but as far as background music would be concerned, it’s a relaxing, soulful and comfortable way to lead into the two heavyweights of the gig – Custard’s Dave McCormack, and international favourite, Joel Plaskett.
Dave McCormack enters and gets the show on the road with a track from his work with the Polaroids, ‘Since You Started to Ride,’ which brings an extremely enthusiastic solo cheer from someone upstairs. He brings the night up from the somber croons and coos of Corby and Carey, with Custard classics (alliterate that,) tracks from his Titanics days as well as his current solo work with the Polaroids. His sarcastic solo stage-manner forces smiles onto all in attendance, peaked when he pauses halfway through ‘I’m Gonna Execute Your Ex-Girlfriend’ to play the bass-line of the song and asks the audience to remember it before breaking into the rest of the pop-rock ditty.
McCormack casts the minds of the Vanguard back to the here and now with ‘Caboolture Speedlab,’ another one of Custard’s greats which halts conversations and spreads an aura of schoolboy excitement across the audience familiar with the old-time favourites. McCormack trades in his sparkling wit for his softer side, with ‘The Beast In Me,’ accompanied by Plaskett on keys. The dip in tempo causes the dinner conversations to pick up volume and obnoxiousness until McCormack breaks out ‘If Yr Famous and You Know It, Sack Yr Band,’ self-introduced as a cover of a fantastic Brisbane band of the 90’s by the name of Custard.
Dave McCormack may not have a tune-perfect, classically trained voice, but the guy is Dave McCormack. THE Dave McCormack…and nobody does witty pop-rock like the former Custard front man. He does more than just lay a platform for what is to come, he establishes a hundred odd smiles across the venue, creates the odd highlight for the night and brings that dose of nostalgia that comes with his unique brand of Australian rock that has graced the radio country wide for 28 years.
With striped orange and brown repeating lines projected onto the stage back drop and a conveniently placed door sitting amongst it, the Vanguard holds its own as one of Sydney’s few retro-styled classy venue wonderlands, with 20’s styled patterned cornices, classic brass lamp stands and crimson walls. A few hundred people pack themselves in for a night of great music, witty stage banter and everything in-between as Plaskett takes the stage, kicking off with ‘Face of the Earth,’ arguably the finest track on his new record ‘Ashtray Rock.’ It’s soulful, chilling, sweet, cute and somehow reminiscent of that snow trip love story everyone has to their name.
He fingers out the opening chords to ‘Lying on a Beach in the Sun,’ a track that he explains as one about being payed a lot of money to do absolutely nothing while his ‘mind turned to vegemite.’ It’s a six minute marathon, including commentary about visiting Cronulla beach for the first time, the origin of each verse and the odd move of slapping himself in the face for the effect of the song. His songs stagger seamlessly into smooth transitions into each other through his banter and stories, including a chat about his cat ‘White Fang’ as he moves on into ‘Work Out Fine,’ inspired by the aforementioned feline. Plaskett, as always, proves himself as an entertainer first and foremost, a guy who mixes in tales between his verses with his signature meandering guitar melodies backing the experience.
He makes the transition to some new material, a track on the solemn side of somber by the name of ‘New Scotland Blues,’ a track which he hopes to record with his father in the next six months. Plaskett pauses to re-tune and talk about Billy Joel, about listening to ‘Glass Houses’ and in particular, sleeping with the television on, which is the inspiration for the next song of the set; ‘True Patriot Love,’ about coming home and falling asleep to the TV before the Canadian TV closing at 3am to the national anthem. This rings a nostalgic bell with a surprising number of Canadian travelers that have made their way to the Vanguard tonight who respond with whoops and hollers.
Plaskett then introduces Sunshine & Clouds tour member, Old Man River. He re-tunes his guitar to a spur of the moment song about just that with Old Man River that revolves around the repeating line, ‘Old Man River, oh old Man River, tunin my guitar with that Old Man River.’ River and Plaskett joke about touring together 30 years ago as Billy Joel and Bob Dylan before breaking out the opening tones to the highlight of Plaskett’s extensive musical catalogue, the beautiful ‘Happen Now,’ with the added support of River’s backing vocals and guitar.
Plaskett then introduces more touring buddies, with the Nightwalker choir taking the stage. Plaskett likens it to an episode of ‘This Is Your Life’ that encompasses his life as of two weeks ago, before settling down at the piano for ‘Televison Set.’ As he fingers the first few tones, he tells a story about late night TV abroad and the transition from Canadian TV where they get girls rolling around in the sand telling you to call 1900 numbers to Australian TV, with “some weird lotto game where a guy and girl scam your money with weird puzzles.” It’s a fun moment, with mid-song mock-ups including a ‘call now boys, the lines are open’ line.
The show moves into a slowed down, cherry sweetened version of ‘Nowhere With You’ before finishing off his pre-encore set with the hauntingly beautiful ‘Light of the Moon,’ claiming that “when [his] best of album is released in 2150, this will be on it…with reworked lyrics and an appearance by Kylie Minogue.” It’s a gorgeous way to finish the set, low-tempo, choir-backed and smooth before his return for the encore with ‘Absentminded Melody,’ accompanied by an electric guitar that he describes as tiny sounding.
Dave McCormack comes onto the stage for a cover of Nick Lowe’s ’14 Days,’ a song they say they bonded over at a BBQ at Dave McCormack’s place ‘oh so many years ago.’ The haunting moans of Nick Lowe is reproduced beautifully by Plaskett and backed by McCormack, resting the Vanguard attendee’s for what ends up being 4 minutes of straight, side-splitting laughter – a choir-backed duet cover of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya.’ The tongue-in-cheek duet barely manages to fail to descend into laughter, but somehow stays afloat amongst Plaskett’s break down into a ‘shake it like a Polaroid picture’ rap and McCormack screaming “I am your neighbour, lend me some sugahhh.” It ends with rapturous applause, tear-stained cheeks and the consensus that everyone at the Vanguard just witnessed the single finest moment in musical history since Beethoven fingered the opening tones to his ninth, and I say that without a hint of exaggeration.
Plaskett’s ‘This Is Your Life’ guests leave the stage to close off the night with another new track, a country infused rock song with catchy hooks that spiral into a furious, high-tempo crescendo before dipping and rising back into a damned chorus that will stick with me until the end of days. He finishes the track with a Public Service Announcement, to aid moderately un-wealthy songwriters by buying a CD up back. While this announcement is ignored by the most, the masses leave the Vanguard with smiles glowing upon their faces and a heart warming sense of togetherness felt at the taxi ranks and bus stops of upper King St. Joel Plaskett has a unique way of bringing together a group of people, reeling them into his indie/folk sounds and raw stage banter and leaving them with an uplifting experience that they flock to see every time he tours. He flies home in a couple of days, but he’s had his presence felt as a highlight of the Sunshine & Clouds revue and in his own right as a solo act. I’m sure I speak for many when I say that we eagerly await his return to our little island down south and with a hint in the closing notes of his final song about returning in the fall, chances are we’ll be seeing him grace the country in the back end of 2008.