Wagons, The Beards @ TheCorner Hotel, Melbourne(05/06/2010)

Mon 7th Jun, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It was a cold and miserable night in Melbourne. The crowd at The Corner Hotel needed some warming up, and this line up was sure to do the trick. After a cracking set from Super Wild Horses, The Beards took the stage and man, there sure was a lot of facial hair going on. Their energetic, rocking set included the tracks If Your Dad Doesn’t Have A Beard, You’ve Got Two Mums , Bearded Nation, Why A Woman Is Better Than A Beard and the crowd’s favourite, Derryn Hinch Shaved Off His Beard And Now He’s Shit. Their fantastic and highly amusing set was the perfect warm up for the main event.

Henry Wagons and co take the stage and the crowd is buzzing. They’re warmed up alright, and ready to party. The Gambler is first cab off the rank, and it’s delivered in usual Wagons style – sleek, soulful and poignant.

“It’s gonna be a good night,” Henry tells the crowd. “It’s a party night.” This is the last night of a long, national tour for Wagons, including the support slot for Justin Townes Earle and Henry’s involvement with the Rockwiz tour. The band is ready for a huge gig, and so are the audience.

They launch into Love Me Like I Love You and all on stage are having a great time, along with the crowd. Henry Wagons has a real presence when he’s performing. He’s a showman; energetic, animated, dishevelled, all over the place. Yet at the same time, there’s something suave and undeniably alluring about the man. The charisma almost visibly oozes from him. He’s a story teller, both through his songs, and the banter between tunes. He has the crowd eating right out of the palm of his hand, and they love it.

Drive All Night Til Dawn is next, followed by a cover of Three Dog Night ’s Never Been To Spain (made famous by Elvis). With more witty banter, Henry introduces the next song, Eagle On The Hill and tells us it’s about a “really shit monument in front a Mobil garage near Adelaide.”

Snake Bite follows, and then we are treated to a song off the new album, I Blew It , which is lapped up by the crowd. Man Sold similarly goes down well before it’s time for the song anyone who has seen Wagons before is waiting for – a cover of The Wayfaring Strangers’ Willie Nelson. The crowd are encouraged to sing the chorus. “We’ve been giving all night,” Henry tells us. “We want you to sing two fuckin words. Sing with all your guts.” And sing we do. “That’s the best Willie Nelson we’ve ever heard. Much better than pinged out teenagers at the Big Day Out,” he tells us with a glint in his eye, more of his wicked sense of humour on show.

Bassist/drummer Si the Philanthropist takes the mike next and MCs his way through a funky number, with backing vocals from fellow bassist/drummer, Mark “Tuckerbag” Dawson. The last song of the set is Goodtown.

The encore begins with a solo Henry singing a dedication to his favourite municipality, Waverly. The haunting Pamela May follows, which brings to light a darker side of Henry’s song-writing.

The gig finishes with the whole band back on stage for the fast paced ditty Jail, It’s Hell. During the song, Henry cavorts around stage manically gathering microphones until he has a mess of five in his large hands, cords tangled all over the stage.

A rollicking performance from what is undisputedly one of Melbourne’s best bands. They’re off to record a new album now. While that means a hiatus in live shows, Wagons fans reckon it’ll be worth the wait. Just don’t make us wait too long, boys.

CHECK OUT PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE