The Whitlams, Jordie Lane,Leena @ The Corner Hotel,Melbourne (27/08/2010)

Sun 29th Aug, 2010 in Gig Reviews

There is an unspoken synergy between some bands and venues; a kind of pilgrimage between the artist and place whenever they’re in town. For instance, The Drones keep heading back to The East Brunswick Club, You Am I have staked claim on the Prince of Wales and as for the Corner Hotel, well that’s The Whitlams’ territory.

The pair of Corner shows on this tour may well have been the last for Melbourne fans for quite a while, with the announcement that frontman Tim Freedman is hitting the studio upon its conclusion to record (and ultimately tour for a while) a new solo album. With that in mind, the full house was ready a good show and in their usual form, The Whitlams delivered such.

Before The Whitlams came a pair of well chosen support acts. The first of these was Leena, who delivered a kind of thoughtful, pop folk with the company of Jordie Lane, who seemed to have lost the plot a little by taking on a female alter ego. Together, the pair sounded fantastic as they harmonised through Leena’s wistful songs. Leena was only left to her own pensive self in a final, keyboard led number that demonstrated she didn’t actually need the male counterpart to draw ears to her sound, though he had certainly helped.

Lane led his own band through the second support slot at the rear of the venue. It’s a good thing when the Corner uses both stages, as interim periods between bands are shortened considerably. Thankfully, Lane didn’t remain feminine this time around, and quickly impressed the room of Whitlams fans with his thoughtful storytelling in songs such as War Rages On – a traveller’s tale from the north to south of Vietnam. Lane is equal parts folkie as he is rockdog, switching between beautiful, acoustic simplicity and romping musical jaunts with the full band – each as much a pleasure as the other, and together crafting a varied set as a whole.

With a huge mass of tunes that define them in an instant, it wasn’t hard for The Whitlams to announce themselves, especially with I Will Not Go Quietly (Duffy’s Song) leading the set list. “I will not go quietly” was certainly a testament to how this kind of send off show would go down (and perhaps Freedman’s future story could be found a little in the song as well: “I was my own man, yeah I was the shit”).

2010 has marked a whopping 18 years for The Whitlams, and as they’ve confidently made their way into adulthood, it’s clear that they’ve still got “it” all this time later. “It” refers to the whole package: loyal fans, a solid lot of songs and a consistently fantastic performance style. Freedman is a king of his craft; rockin’ on piano to get the crowd’s dance on at times (_You Sound Like Louis Burdett_, Year of the Rat) and keeping complete control to transfix the crowd in others (_Kate Kelly_, Blow Up The Pokies). The band has respect for their music above all else and it’s so great that they’ve kept all that together after this long.

If the venue wasn’t telling enough of a Whitlams gig in itself (they have history there – they once supported the Scared Weird Little Guys apparently… what?), there was plenty more that defined the evening of one belonging to Freedman and Co. A Whitlams gig is full of idiosyncrasies – moments where you know the people in the room are as familiar with the band as fans can get. The cheer came at the perfect time in Thank You; “More Sauce” was yelled unanimously during I Make Hamburgers; and then there was Buy Now Pay Later (Charlie No. 2) – a song which Freedman sang alone on stage, but could hardly be said to have been solo. At this show, as at any Whitlams gig in which it appears, the song was taken away by the crowd, with Freedman actually performing the harmonies in its chorus – a technique as poignant as they come.

Away from the tunes there was plenty to keep the crowd entertained, too; the recent election giving Freedman plenty of ammunition for his usual (jiving) political asides. One anecdote of note was used as an introduction for the aforementioned Buy Now Pay Later, in which Freedman told of a Bad Seeds gig he attended. Nick Cave said crowd participation was needed, only to be heckled with: “What’s in it for us?” For Freedman, the joke was not in the heckling, it was the fact that this was probably the only time all members of the Bad Seeds had ever laughed simultaneously. Then there was the piano stool, which became somewhat of a running joke through the set – the stage tech bashing (yes, bashing) it back together several times, even with Freedman pouring his heart out on the mic.

As the set continued through, the crowd began to sing more and more songs with the band; the set list proving to be a kind of greatest hits. No Aphrodisiac, Gough and Royal In The Afternoon rounded things out in such a fashion – the sizeable tracks finishing the last Whitlams set for a while in a way that fans would have wanted.