Madness @ The Big Top, Sydney(26/03/09)

Sun 29th Mar, 2009 in Gig Reviews

ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW ARE HERE.

A warm autumn night at Luna Park – home of one of the world’s last standing – œFunhouses’ – seemed like the perfect venue for a band like Madness. Usually a barn reserved for hardcore bands with an ego too big for their age, the Big Top felt welcoming for all the suspenders, Ben Sherman shirts and peculiar hats on those ready to fork out $93 in the middle of a recession.

Indeed the night wasn’t all prepping for nostalgia. It turns out someone booked a support band: Former Child Stars. A band that offered basic, middle-of-the-road indie rock. There was nothing special about this band: nothing new, nothing great, yet also nothing horrible. Passable and promising, if this had been at the Manning Bar with the Next Big Thing headlining.

Yet what worries me is that in a city like Sydney – or even a country like Australia – there was not one ska-influenced act available (let alone willing) to play support to the seminal ska band. While the Stray Cats could get the Living End to play a loving set dedicated to their number one influence, all indicators pointed to Former Child Stars knowing Madness as “the guys behind the Huggies commercial song”. As the bored faces of crowd showed, Former Child Stars wasn’t good enough.

It was with joy then that the stage was set up, for the first time in 23 years, for Suggs, Chas Smash and the rest of the eight-piece that together make Madness. With an average age almost double the average age of most concert crowds, it was with the greatest sense of astonishment that band and crowd alike burst to life once the opening refrain from One Step Beyond was called out. And by “burst to life”, I mean “were possessed”. As the two vocalists and saxophonist Lee Thompson ran and jumped amongst the Big Top stage – playing classics Embarrassment and My Girl alongside recent release NW5 – the crowd danced, jumped and moshed like this was 1986 all over again.

Suggs and Chas often interrupted the stream of hits to talk of the then and now. While both now have spouses and children to return home to (much like their audience), they reminisced their times spent at the old haunts, asking the audience rhetorically the old mid-life adage of, “Where has the time gone?” As an opener to ballads Grey Day and Lovestruck it was a stark reminder of the nostalgic factor present for both band and audience at this gig.

Nevertheless, as the message was delivered to Suggs that the show had to quiet down or face having the plug pulled (greeted with booing from all corners of the venue), Madness rebelliously turned up the notch, playing the now-ironic Forever Young, followed by a string of their most recognisable hits. With House of Fun, Wings Of A Dove, Baggy Trousers, Our House and It Must Be Love closing the main set, singing voices and limb flexibility were equally tested. It’s a live run that most bands dream of; to play all-so-many songs that even the most casual listener will not only recognise but sing along to word-for-word like a devotee.

As the night drew to a close with their eponymous track and Night Boat to Cairo for the encore, not a single punter wasn’t sweat-drenched and donning a smiling face. Sure, their latest offerings only go to show how irrelevant they’ve become. But tonight wasn’t about that. This Thursday night was all about sharing a moment that I, at my tender age, can’t claim as my own, yet can certify is hardly ever achieved at a band’s return to the stage.

Akin to getting a favourite LP and spinning it again for the first time in years, it wasn’t the state of the music that mattered, but the memories. And for even a fleeting Madness fan, those are as clear as ever.