Youth Group @ Jive, Adelaide(08/11/08)

Tue 18th Nov, 2008 in Gig Reviews

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Youth Group and theredsunband landed in Adelaide for the second last show on their massive 18 date co-headline tour, which has seen them travelling the country sharing a big bus – Patridge Family style.

Driving all day from Wagga Wagga to Adelaide and being at the end of the tour had no visible impact on energy levels with both bands delivering awesome sets despite the crowd all sitting on the floor for the first two acts.
Being the opening support can be hard and even harder when you have only your voice and an acoustic guitar to fill the space but Laura Imbruglia didn’t let any of that phase her and despite her self confessed “depresso vibe” by the time she finished the set with a request from the floor for Lettuce and Anarchists she clearly won the crowd over.

The order of bands for the tour was determined with a coin toss in Sydney but in Adelaide theredsunband where up next with their moody rock pop style. I must admit to not knowing a lot about this trio previously but I loved the combination of the moodiness of the music, Sarah Kelly’s vocals and their obvious sense of fun on the stage, which often resulted in giggling fits.
On top of that you have to give kudos to a band that write songs about how much they love to sleep.

theredsunband played fairly good mix of songs from their new album The Shiralee as well as older material, including Sleep Forever, which kept the diehard fans in the crowd happy.

While Forever Young may have been Youth Group’s most commercially successful offering it is by no means their best.

The new album, The Night is Ours, is sometimes a little more mellow than previous work but is also musically more complex with more layers to the sound which is set off perfectly by Toby Martin’s vocals which were sounding incredible.

With the crowd finally on their feet Youth Group kicked off with One for Another and Toby Martin was all over the stage, down on his knees and clearly he and the rest of the band were having a great time. They played mainly from the new album including Good Time, All This Will Pass, Friedrichstrasse and A Sign but also treated us to some older stuff as well.

The encore however was the highlight of the show with Youth Group, theredsunband and Laura Imbruglia all crowding onto the tiny Jive stage, along with a very large number of guitars and tambourines to deliver another four songs including theredsunband’s Devil Song and of course Youth Group’s Forever Young which with Sarah Kelly’s additional vocals gave it a completely different feel. The chaos and commotion from just the large number of people on the stage was a fantastic way to end the night.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE