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The eclectic collection of fierce song writing talent, perfectly oppositional vocals and pounding rhythm that is Gomez have a deep running affinity with Australia, which is lucky for the average punter with their own personal connection with the band. One can just as easily see these just-above-placid gents at least once a year (even in Adelaide, astonishingly) or skip a gig or two here or there and feel like they just need to make sure they catch them the next time, just like they would the local band their friends co-opted in order to make sub-par indie pop. Celebration of Gomez’s fortunate love of our shores aside, they should be caught live as much as possible. Whilst their recording output has wavered, perhaps not strictly in quality but more in ambition and genuine peculiarity, the albums they’ve managed to pull together since their critical opus have had their fair share of pristine pop hooks and harmonies that make you melt. Their two most recent releases have ventured further away from the early bravery that captured them significant critical acclaim and award and nestled them nicely in a zone most appropriately referred to as ‘challenging comfort’. This has its pros and cons, as do most things. The pop melodies and beautiful hooks that are so very Gomez are still present, perhaps they’re even becoming more obvious, but the live-in-love of every musical genre they’d hear and the embracing of every bar band sound they knew that was so obvious only a few years ago has diminished. It’s been replaced to some degree with samples and drum tracks that while they remain Gomez-esque and important to their overarching modus operandi, they’ve become a little stale, used more as a way of trying to convince us that they are still creatively restless rather than making them creative. This description of their recent recorded output (especially the new album A New Tide, How We Operate had such genius pop melodies that it was carried on that, and that alone), is a perfect starting point and maybe even end point for describing the nature of this particular show.

It bears context to explain that I last saw Gomez a few years back. They were touring Split The Difference and all but packed out Thebby, treating me to one of the tightest bands I’ve seen live playing some of the most interesting songs going around at the time. Simply put it was an absolute zinger of a gig. Fast Forward… Next take, I’m at The Gov, the commercial pull of Gomez (and to some degree the critical celebration of their work) has lost its lustre. They’ve gone from juggernauts to journeymen. This all sounds a bit extreme, Gomez were always a bunch of chillers and some may argue that Bring It On was just a combination of good taste and good luck, but now, as demonstrated at this concert they seem to go through the motions to some degree, albeit VERY enjoyably. The crowd mostly made up of people who would of bought Bring It On when it came out, with a smattering of your classic Ed Hardy drunken tools, and a grand splash of women of some taste reacted relatively well across the night, quieter during the lesser knowns, excited at every ‘hit’. In fact surprisingly the reaction to the How We Operate songs was consistently positive, drawing more singing (or drunken squalling, depending on your perspective (It appears Gomez fans don’t have the vocal chops of any of their three tipsy heroes)) than anything bar Whippin’ Piccadilly the most famous song played, eschewing the expected reaction. In fact the How We Operate songs would form the majority of any EP-length highlights package put together from the night. Hamoa Beach drew constant cheering; getting a confused sing-along that cranked the volume if not the accuracy. Ben Ottewell’s solo jaunt, the beautiful See The World kept the HWO quality going, further contributing to the mellow joy inherent to Gomez. They rocked Operate out too with an extended version of Girl Shaped Love Drug validating Gomez’s and more so Tom Gray’s power-pop credentials in inimitable style.

The selections from A New Tide were hit and miss and given that they weren’t messed with or rearranged to any great degree, their quality on the night was similar to their quality on record. Mix played out as an enjoyable straight up rocker with a twist, as is Gomez’s whim on occasions while Win Park Slope lost a bit live, lacking the punch Gomez should find so easy. Having said this Little Pieces gave Ottewell a chance to shine and its infectious chorus worked bizarrely well. And showing confidence in their new release, they played Airstream Driver as the gig closer, and pretty much succeeded in finishing damn well. Interestingly Silence which was the only Split The Difference song lodged in my as-usual-substance-addled gig-memory came off as modern Gomez and kind of aurally bridged the gap between distinct eras. Ruff Stuff came along at just the right time coming off as one of the experimental B-sides that have made this band so interesting.

There was a solid bunch of old-school crowd pleasers too, for fans and casuals alike. Tijuana Lady the Ottewell ballad masterpiece was wedged nicely into the middle of the gig and gave the pliable crowd a chance to sing-along and bastardise the lyrics. They played the only-fans-enjoy rarity Bring Your Lovin’ Back Here which gift-wrapped a salival-bluesy mess for hardcore fans to lose it too. Nice. It was also one of the songs that gave Ottewell the chance to stretch out on guitar and steal the show. This happened frequently as it became obvious that instrumentally the live show is based around a bit of the acrobatics of the raspy voiced one himself and the overly powerful but gloriously loud drumming of Olly Peacock. This combination was most clearly seen in the encore performance of We Haven’t Turned Around Yet that cracked and hissed with a loudness and power that perhaps isn’t heard on record. It nearly convinced me that they should drop the new pop pretensions entirely and just tour the world bashing out Bring It On and Liquid Skin. But that would be regressionist bullshit, and while I will always find that tempting to bail too I try to refrain. Overall the set-list was dominated by A New Tide and How We Operate songs, with a sprinkling of older tunes included. This was in stark contrast to the last time I saw them and probably suited their current state or status, or however you want to frame it.

Perhaps their current trajectory is unable to be disturbed and they are at such a point where there key opportunities for expansion exist only in how they further perfect what they already appear to have mastered. As demonstrated by their heterogeneous discography, Gomez could do most anything on any given night, and you assume the same goes for any new release they bust out. It’s just a pity that now they seem to be playing the acceptance game, the restless ‘need to be different’ and unusual and creative is to some degree gone and we can for the time being expect live shows that are enjoyable, but not necessarily satisfying. Live shows like this one in which moments excite you and other moments bore you. Live shows like this one that definitely explain to you how freewheeling, interesting and timeless Gomez are, but don’t necessarily convince you of it. Take nothing away from these blokes, I loved it and walked away contented. They’ve just spent the last 10 years raising my expectations. Fingers crossed for next time. At least I know ‘next time’ will be soon.

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