Alex Lloyd @ The GovernorHindmarsh, Adelaide (16/05/09)

Thu 28th May, 2009 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.

It’s pretty clear that the Alex Lloyd hey day has well and truly passed after taking an eternity to release Good In The Face Of A Stranger. Seeing a half filled Governor Hindmarsh was a strong reminder that a few people have fallen off the bandwagon. In between the beer and schnitzel crowd, the stargazers and a small contingent of die hard fans down the front, the empty spaces in the venue were kind of unsightly and for a Saturday night the vibe was a little flat.

Nevertheless, Alex Lloyd didn’t disappoint given the low key vibe in the room. He could have quite easily just gone through the motions and have just done the minimum in a workman like fashion. This tour was a little different compared to past tours in that Alex has reworked some of his back catalogue giving it a new leash of life with a stripped back sound. He was accompanied by a drummer and another guitarist and I reckon this worked quite well. It is refreshing to hear Lloyd in a different light and made his set all the more enjoyable.

It was a little frustrating to see Lloyd sit down the entire evening as the stool he was sitting on was quite low to the ground making it difficult to see him down the back. Lloyd was in good spirits even sharing the odd story and joke with the crowd as well as proclaiming his like for some of South Australia’s well known wines polishing off a bottle.

From a fans perspective all the hits were there but it was the new material that really stood to attention. The majority of punters probably didn’t know that there was a new album out let alone know how good it is. What We Started is a great song with Lloyd at his very best and Slow Train was equally as good also. On the other hand crowd favourites included Black The Sun, My Friend, Green and Bus Ride. Once Lloyd started to crank things up a little with Coming Home the crowd did rise to their feet and started to get in to it more. It didn’t take much encouragement for the crowd to have a little sing-a-long as well. Hearing the new and improved version of Amazing was interesting with Lloyd opting for a ukulele, which did give it quite a different touch. Finishing the night off with a cover of Mystery Train was just swell. It will be interesting to see where Alex Lloyd goes from here.

Hats off to Abbie Cardwell who opened proceedings and there’s no doubt a few punters who were won over would have bought her CD on the way out… nice one!

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.