Having battled through Ekka-related traffic, I arrived at The Globe where Luke Steele was being accosted in the lobby by female fans with camera phones. He happily posed for photos and by 9:30 the ropes went down and an almost capacity crowd filed into the theatre.
An Horse opened their set with a new song featuring drummer Damon Cox on melodica. A set of mostly new material sat well against tracks from their Not Really Scared EP such as Company and Postcards. Singer/guitarist Kate Cooper commented that the audience was “spookily polite” compared to the crowd at the previous night’s gig in Coolum, where a punter attempted to convince the band to play songs by The Angels. “This next one’s for Doc!” joked Cox and the band finished their set with Shoes Watch, under a lightshow Cooper likened to “playing Laserforce”.
It was time for the Luke Steele “Olympic” Roadshow, as the man himself dubbed it. Armed with an acoustic guitar, a sampler, a looping pedal and a vocal harmoniser pedal, Steele was clearly overjoyed to be onstage and removed from the fuss of The Sleepy Jackon’s live performances. Miles Away and God Lead Your Soul made early appearances and Steele performed the entirety of Good Dancers in a slightly creepy falsetto. There was plenty of new material too, including the sweet When I Dream and Cellophane River, from an upcoming project with Daniel Johns.
An initially tear-jerking version of Acid in My Heart was given the comic touch by Steele’s improvised lyrics. “Now there’s acid in my heart,” quickly became “why was my girlfriend vomiting in the park?” and subsequently, “I need a proper job,” as the song progressed.
Steele wore his bluegrass influences firmly on his sleeve in this solo-mode performance, with almost every single song involving a stomp box, chicken-picking guitar and a harmonica. This didn’t stop the crowd cheering for an encore after Steele left the stage at the end of his 90 minute set and he delivered with a beautiful rendition of What a Wonderful World.
After a few more onstage rock-star poses for the camera phone brigade, Steele left the stage for the final time, leaving a room full of happy punters.
