Powderfinger, Jet, The VascoEra @ Rod Laver Arena,Melbourne (10/09/2010)

Tue 14th Sep, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Muted applause from a sparse crowd on the Rod Laver Arena floor greets The Vasco Era as they ghost on to the stage. This may be Powderfinger’s night but the lads from Apollo Bay aren’t going to relinquish their opportunity so easily, beginning with just a drumbeat and a howl without deference to the occasion, ignoring any sense of gravitas with trademark swagger. Most recognisable single Oh, Sam comes relatively early at the second song in and, having not given themselves enough time to warm into the set, the song is punchy but lacks the soaring chorus of the recorded version.

By the time closer Honeybee rolls around, the band have certainly hit a higher gear; allowing the crunchy patchwork of the composition to reverberate around the huge venue. Not that this prompts any great enthusiasm from the audience, who look thoroughly nonplussed by The Vasco Era’s place on the bill. Equally bemused are the band themselves, who play with energetic conviction but don’t really seem to take the whole thing too seriously. As if to compound this notion, lead singer Sid O’Neil proves he actually can sing by performing a touching rendition of Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay as his bandmates walk offstage, before spruiking a miniature heavy metal solo and dropping his acoustic guitar on the ground and strolling offstage with the casual air of a retired professional.

Entering with comparable arrogance, Jet take a step further than The Vasco Era by allowing the sense of complacency to creep into their performance. When lead singer Nic Cester relinquishes vocal duties to drummer brother Chris, his onstage presence practically disappears; hiding as he does behind his guitar or turning to face the back of the stage, while guitarist Cameron Muncey is immobile to the point of catatonia throughout, failing even to liven up for his twisty solo during Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

To Jet’s credit, they do make some attempts to engage the audience, She’s A Genius finally sees the band moving with enthusiasm and the tried and tested ‘every member plays percussion’ method elicits a clap along of sorts from an inactive crowd. Unfortunately, there is not enough on display from the returned Melburnian rockers to invigorate a languid audience that cheers at the end of every song but doesn’t move an iota during the performance. Not that it needed 2 support acts to prove it, but the people are here for Powderfinger and apparently no other band can sate that appetite.

‘Good evening, folks’, says Bernard Fanning after a triumphant Love Your Way has faded out over a jubilant arena floor and instantly the decibel level triples over anything heard in the last 90 minutes. From this point on, the gig takes flight, plotting a course that is representative of the band’s career: smooth, unrestricted and meandering across both light and dark. Pruning a selection of hits and some more niche numbers from their large back catalogue, the band perform beneath a looming scaffold arch that serves as a light rig to represent the ‘sunsets’ from the name of the tour, while disparate and hypnotic projections play out on a stretched white shroud behind the group.

20 years down the line and with one eye surely on a lazy retirement spent on the Queensland coast, the boys from Brisbane have gone out of their way to put on a show worthy of an adoring crowd; combining elements of light show and videography with a mid-set change of location. As a peculiar montage of 20th century events plays out on the main stage screen, the band secretly set up on the sound stage at the rear of the standing area, launching into Stumblin’ and causing a thousand shocked heads to snap around in surprise. The sound of the bands rockier numbers emanating from the speaker stack on the main stage while they appear a good 30 metres away is disconcerting, but in terms of showmanship, you’ve got to hand it to them for producing a memorable moment complete with drum and bass solo and full band jam as Bernard returns to the frontline.

When the band are in their usual place, they settle into the large space with ease, swanning around with the relaxed satisfaction of a marathon in the lead at the final stretch. A suited Fanning patrols the stage with a lazy confidence earned from a lifetime in the public eye. His voice is impeccable as expected, simultaneously sweet and commanding on Burn Your Name and righteously sultry for (Baby, I Got You) On My Mind. The latter in particular demonstrates the band’s ability to perform in the live arena, it’s sliding opening riff giving way to a zealous flurry of solos and percussion that extracts extra volume from “the loudest Melbourne crowd (Fanning) has ever seen”, demonstrating just how Powderfinger have become the best answer to a Pearl Jam or a U2 that Australia has to offer.

Not that great arena acts with huge amounts of material to draw on don’t suffer occasionally. Prior to the Houdini act of disappearing and re-appearing amongst the people, Powderfinger’s brand of stadium ready classic rock had to begun to jar a little with too many slower paced songs soaking up the atmosphere in the room. Even at the encore, These Days is not as good as it should be, lacking the building, haunting intro of the original as Bernard chooses to play it straight with an acoustic, inadvertently draining some of the drama from the songs opening moments. With this in mind, it might have been better to drop some more upbeat or dramatic numbers like Private Man or We Should Be Together Now into the mix, but the band choose to omit them in favour of more intimate cuts.

This is a tactic which does have it benefits. Powderfinger have spent a long time building a dedicated and passionate fanbase, and where successful export, Jet, and much hyped upstarts Vasco Era couldn’t ignite a taciturn crowd, Powderfinger have the people eating out of their hands. As My Happiness hits its glorious stride, a lone figure in the audience rises above the rest, standing on 2 pairs of shoulders to meet eye level with the band. The gesture has immediate effect, prompting a torrent of cheers and a surge of bodies towards the foot of the stage. Fanning acknowledges the fan, thanks him for his spirit and then turns with a smile to his bandmates, safe in the knowledge that all the cheers were reserved for a band bowing out on a high.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THE BRILLIANT PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT HERE