Status Quo @ Clipsal 500,Adelaide (14/03/10)

Wed 17th Mar, 2010 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.

A gig following a V8 Supercars race is a very different experience to a gig in its own right. For starters, it’s hard to judge the portion of the crowd who are actually here to see the bands and the portion that are just here because they have been drinking all day watching the cars and get the concert as part of the package. It would certainly be the latter portion of the crowd that makes this type of gig so different. It can be hard enough to get a good viewing position at a large outdoor concert as it is, but when a lot of the crowd have set up picnic rugs and camping chairs, it makes it even trickier. The most annoying part about these people is that a lot of them take up so much space yet aren’t really that interested in watching the stage, they’re happy to just sit and drink and chat with their friends.

This annoyance aside, this particular Sunday evening after-race concert had the perfect weather for the event. It was an ideal night for having a few beers and seeing some live bands outdoors.

Opening the live show was the classic Aussie act Mental As Anything. They certainly didn’t open the show with a bang but their set list contained a good list of familiar radio tunes. They played all of their biggest hits such as Too Many Times and Live It Up, and while they played well, they did seem a little bit tired and weren’t the most exciting band on the night.

Ex-*Cold Chisel* guitarist Ian Moss was the second act on and the party atmosphere did lift quite a bit for this Aussie rock legend. It was no wonder considering he played his biggest solo hits such as Tuckers Daughter, and as always, he played a nice selection of his Cold Chisel classics, the highlights which were Bow River and a fairly breezy version of Flame Trees. The Chisel classics were what really got the crowd in the mood to party and Mossy really delivered a flawless performance. This man is a truly under-rated vocalist and guitarist.

The third act on was Noiseworks. It must be said that there are a lot of bands who had a lot of success in the 80s and have reformed and played nostalgic gigs and have truly past their glory days. It can really tarnish the great memories of how good they were back in their prime. Fortunately, this is not the case with Noiseworks. They sounded better than they did in the 80s if anything. I was particularly impressed with the performance from vocalist Jon Stevens. His vocals were as strong as they have ever been and his stage presence was up there with the best rock frontmen in the business. I could clearly see why INXS wanted him in their band to fill the big shoes left behind by Michael Hutchence.

As well as playing all of their big radio hits of the past including Hot Chilli Woman, Reach Out, and No Lies, which all sounded fresh, they also played some new songs. I seriously believe these songs will be sadly wasted by radio programmers due to the stigma of being an ‘80s band’. The new songs sounded very current and could easily be played alongside Kings of Leon on the radio and be huge modern rock hits. If commercial radio gave them the airplay, Noiseworks would most certainly become loved by a whole new generation of rock music fans.

The headline act for the final Clipsal concert of the year were British rock legends, Status Quo. I’m not sure how many would have been at a typical Status Quo gig in Adelaide but for the Clipsal, the huge crowd that had stayed right til the end, really seemed to enjoy this performance.

As a big fan of rock music for years and years, but not necessarily of Status Quo, I expected to know most of the songs in the set. I was surprised that I hardly knew any from the first half of the set. It didn’t really matter much though, because like AC/DC, their sound is so distinctive that you know exactly what you’re hearing and feel as though you do know the song by the time it’s half over.

For the last half of the set, all of the Quo hits were rolled out. Rockin’ all over the World, Roll over Lay down, Whatever You Want, and Down Down were among them. Although (arguably) a lot of their songs sound too familiar to each other and they look a tad too much like conservative ‘dads’ nowadays, they had to crowd in the palm of their hand and sounded fantastic. It was hard not to enjoy the performance. Overall, the after race concert on this night had a great vibe and a really good selection of artists for such an occasion. The ticket price would have been worth it for the concert alone, the car races were a bonus.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.