Powderfinger, Jet, PaulDempsey @ University ofCanberra (13/10/2010)

Wed 13th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

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Talk about surreal. Showing up at UC for this, The Final Fingering (how did this not prevail at the tour naming workshop?), was akin to being teleported into a big summer festival just in time for the headline act. The bars were full; the big top was full; Jet were annoying; and the Canberra posse was abuzz with a sort of thrilled disbelief. Disbelief that this would be the last time we’d host this most wonderful, dependable, life-giving band; The Finger.

You can’t deny Powderfinger their status among the Australian greats: 20 years, 15 ARIAs, two and a half Hottest 100 wins* and countless, sensational, live shows. Mention the name to any friend and they’ll hit you with, “Yeah I’ve seen them live soooo many times. I love it when they play their older stuff. When I broke up with my first bf/gf in high school I listened to Pick You Up soooo many times the cassette broke.” Whoops…inner glimpse.

This show was cracking, with a set list to please every generation of Powderfinger fans. It took an anti-chronological path, beginning with Love Your Way, Lost And Running and Burn Your Name from the most recent three albums, and ending with the all-time favs from the Double Allergic, Internationalist and Odyssey Number Five records.

Those of us who think the purple one’s the best were treated with vintage versions of some of its finest tracks – Already Gone, Private Man, Passenger and Capoicity. These always feel like the songs that came from the band at its best – young, emotional, agitated and dripping with creative musical ideas – unlike the later hits, which were a bit too predictable.

The crowd was hysterical from the moment, mid-set, the band popped up on a makeshift stage halfway down the big top to play Like A Dog and mingle, before heading back up front to finish. All this stuff was rather cheesy and choreographed, but there were just enough interesting solos, mistakes and raised eyebrows among band members, to know we still had a unique rock show.

There were support acts too. Paul Dempsey, the fine singer and acoustic guitarist, who did a particularly fine job of MGMT’s Time To Pretend, but whose own songwriting seems still to be bogged down in the time when Something For Kate went mega boring. And Jet, the wind-up toys from Melbourne who have good songs and bad songs, but always songs which are made up of the same three fucking chords. Whoops…inner envy.

For the romantics: yes, the Powderfinger boys are all still gruff, good-looking and unbelievably cool. And for the guitarheads: yes, the Darren Middleton/Ian Haug collection of Stratocasters, Telecasters and Les Pauls is equally good-looking, cool and by now, priceless. Unfortunately the old axes are unlikely to pop up on ebay because poverty won’t be an issue for the retirees, who still own a record label and good chunk of the Splendour In The Grass festival.

So what future for Fanning, who spent his banter time re-living old Canberra memories at the Asylum Bar and the Lyneham Motor Inn, before gloriously proclaiming himself to be Julia Gillard. Politics? Doubt it – he’s already turned down an offer from the LNP and he’s too smart to follow the Peter Garrett path. Maybe he’ll host the 7:30 Report when Kerry O’Brien leaves at the end of the year. More music? There must be – for the others too. Whatever the future, it’s hard to see these men having anything but fun.

So it seems their retirement will only be a loss to the rest of us. In recent times Canberra crowds just haven’t reacted like they did last night – not for Silverchair or Augie March or even Midnight Oil. They lost it. It was weird. It must be a scene that’s being repeated every night of this tour, and God knows how that last show in Brisbane will be. It’s as if we’re back in year eight going through that first horrible break up again: “Right. You’re leaving me. I get it. But what the fuck am I supposed to do now”?

*Fanning’s 2005 win with Wish You Well only gets a half: first, it wasn’t a band effort; and second, it’s a pretty wet song. Honestly Bernie…what the?

SEE THE GALLERY HERE!