Old Man River @ TheSpiegeltent, Adelaide(28/02/09)

Mon 2nd Mar, 2009 in Gig Reviews

They are dead nice aren’t they? Old Man River? Dead nice. There is
a near full Spiegeltent that thinks they are dead nice. They are all very sweet and the songs are warm and fuzzy and they play decoupaged guitars. Like Cat Empire without all the leaping around and frantic Latin rhythms and blary trumpets.

The audience is pretty varied lots of young teenagers and middle aged couples, and nobody but me seems to mind that this show is set up as a sit down gig, so nobody dances even when the big hits are played and it generally feels a bit more like a recital than a gig. This is a shame because they have a great bunch of songs and a lot of them have a warm, mid-paced groove that folks could have taken advantage of.

The set starts with Rosie Henshaw walking on stage in a mini-skirt and go-go boots and sitting on top of a grand piano to play the sitar. There are just not enough sitars in modern pop music in my opinion and so they get extra points for that right up front. She is soon joined by the rest of the chaps with Liam Flanagan (bass) and main man Oham Rein (guitar/vocals) making up the front line. They seem bemused by the quiet and reverent atmosphere but plug in get started. Sunshine is a good example of what I mean (about them being dead nice), it’s a lovely song. The mix is perfect, fully of jangly sitar and nice harmonies. There is more of that in Believe It which if you haven’t heard on the radio, you have heard on that TV ad. India is the first of a batch of new songs that will be on the new album and its catchy and lovely and very Old Man River-ish. Another new song is played for only the second time ever. Religion (I’ve got no religion but you) is a belter and will be all over Triple J before you know it. I felt that dancing would break out during the international mega-smash La, but it was not to be.

Fortunately there was a mass sing-a-long, because Ohad’s mic started making bad noises but they were able to save the song by getting the crowd to sing instead. While the crew fixed the tech issues Ohad and Rosie grabbed an acoustic guitar and headed out into the middle of the room to perform The Wedding Song. The response to this lovely move was rapturous. Back on stage for Trousers and a terrific Summer, before having to cut their set short for time restraints. When Oham returns alone, someone asks for a story and he obliges with a tale of inadvertently swearing at millions of Italian radio listeners recently. All over Italy they now believe that he “likes the cock”. He finishes with a wonderful You & Me and thanks us for coming before jumping off the stage. Lovely. Did I mention that Old Man River are dead nice? They are you know, dead nice.