It’s a strange crowd this one: not an obviously beardy-folky crowd, but a wired-up and potentially seditious lot, predominantly male and aged 18-35, with serious haircuts. A good portion of them are sporting Rage Against The Machine starred tshirts, or other distinctly unfolky band merch (*NIN*, Tool, Incubus…) The kind of crowd that might well fire up for a night of righteous protest songs, or so I imagine is the hope of headliner The Nightwatchman (AKA Tom Morello, Shredding Guitar God from Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave). The atmosphere is charged. The air smells of something dark and blokey and slightly dangerous. It could be sedition. It could be bourbon. There’s a good chance it’s both.

The only support, Melbourne’s The Darling Downs, are entertaining the swelling mob with their Appalachian-style jeremiads, all bones-a-jangle banjo and guitar and yodelled/yelped vocals. Ron Peno wails like a flogged chainganger, hanging by one white-knuckled hand from the microphone as the other hand flails and gropes toward the sky. In his spotted-silk-lined two-piece suit, he looks more politician than poet, but poetry this is. Kim Salmon smiles serenely, supplying sublime strings and slightly-off but somehow perfectly fitting harmonies. The sweetly spun final song, I’ve Had The Time Of My Life just about sums it up for the cheering crowd, completely won over by this oddly addictive duo.

Talking to my fellow Morello fans before the Man Himself appeared, it quickly becomes apparent that although they’re devoted to him, they’re not very happy about the way RATM tickets were recently allowed to fall into the hands of scalpers. There’s a clear sense that somehow the band should have exercised more control over the sales: “they’re supposed to be Socialists… for the people!” as one fan said. He’s even written a note to “Comrade Tom” outlining his feelings. It’s that kind of reality gap, between the espoused values and the overt actions, that would leave me feeling a little unsettled during the show. Another: The Nightwatchman is all about defying authority and sticking up for your rights, as I understand it. So when his security guys descend into the crowd to stop fans from filming snippets on their digital cameras, what would have happened if those fans refused with a very Morello-esque “Fuck you!”? Would have they have been applauded or shown the door? I don’t know, because no-one did. For a crowd chockful of rebellious seditionists, this was a mighty polite and well-behave bunch. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Nightwatchman himself was much more impressive than I expected. Alone on stage but for several guitars and a lurking security myrmidon, he was a commanding presence. Appearing clad in his ubiquitous baseball cap and armpit-slung acoustic (this one hand-scrawled with the words: WHATEVER IT TAKES), eyes hidden for the first song behind motorbike-cop-style mirrored glasses, he played up to the local crowd straight away, changing the lyrics to his song One Man Revolution to “…and on the streets of Sydney…” Other comments about beautiful Aussie girls at Bondi and how the Sydney crowd was so much better than our Brisbane counterparts helped to seal the love affair betwixt The Nightwatchman and our fair city. Tom Morello is, surprisingly, very charming. He’s articulate, warm, driven, opinionated, intelligent, and appears to be utterly sincere in his political beliefs. So, what about the music?

Delivered in his “rich milk-chocolate baritone” (his words) these songs are simple in construction, and utterly forthright in their lyrics. When he sings “I pray that God will drown the President, if the levees break again” (from Midnight In The City) you needn’t search for metaphors or hidden meaning. In terms of subtlety, these songs are the equivalent of a sockful of pennies to the forehead, and that’s the way he means them to be. Do any of them have the dignity and gravitas of Johnny Cash’s Man In Black or the poetry of Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall? No they don’t. But do you know what? At least he’s trying. Few contemporary musicians bother to pay more than occasional lip service to social injustice (the odd mega-media WhateverAid event), whereas Morello has staked the success of a whole album on it. What’s more, another’s on the way. He’s going to come back and tour that one too – he promised us, and Lord knows, if Tom Morello can’t be trusted to keep a promise, who can?

Forgive me if I sound a tad cynical or jaded at times; it’s a lifetime habit. In the thick of last night’s crowd, however, caught up in The Nightwatchman’s unmistakably sincere fervour and charisma, that rich milk-chocolatey baritone, I was as swayed as anyone. I cheered and clapped when prompted, and even when not prompted. I stomped along with the Irish-as-potatoes rump-de-dump of The Road I Must Travel. I clamoured along with the rest for an encore and was ecstatic to get it, along with a second one that the whole house pogoed up and down to. I happily joined in with The Nightwatchman’s buddy system, whereby, during the quiet songs, we were urged to tell any chattering person next to us to “shut the fuck up”. It worked. Last night was the first time I’ve ever been able to hear the air-conditioning (well, fans) above the breathless silence of the crowd. The man’s obviously a wizard of some sort.

Having enchanted us for an hour and a half, he left us with the quote: “Never give up, and never give in – nobody wins, unless we ALL win.” Wise words with a noble sentiment, words we should repeat to ourselves on a regular basis. That’s if we can remember them without a video record of the event to prompt us…

SETLIST:
One Man Revolution
Union Song
Maximum Firepower
Flesh Shapes The Day
Midnight In The City Of Destruction
House Gone Up In Flames
Saint Isobel
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (G W Bush remix)
The King Of Hell
The Garden Of Gesthemene
Let Freedom Reign

1st Encore:
Alone Without You
The Road I Must Travel

2nd Encore:
Until The End