You Am I @ The Fly By Night,Perth (18/11/10)

Mon 22nd Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

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Support bands Datura and Young Revelry provided a blast of sound and energy to kick the night off, which was unfortunately not reciprocated by the crowd in the early stages of the evening. It was something of an all-give and all-take relationship – they showed appreciation; they just preferred to keep close to the bar and the back of the room. Perhaps they were too shy / too sober to let out their inner hooligan so early.

Regardless, Datura opened and rocked out with style and professionalism. A collective of respected and talented musicians (from The Stems, You Am I, DM3 and M16’s) these guys are no show ponies – they know how to do what they do. They provided some groovy blues and swampy jam breakdowns to boogie on down to. (If the crowd would only move their arses a centimetre)

Young Revelry gave it their all also with plenty of distortion and feedback. Being half the age of the other bands did not prevent them from bringing on the noise with some great lead guitar solos and heaps of energy. Both support bands gave a grand performance to a sea of meek faces and shuffling feet.

A stir begins amongst the crowd as the stage is prepared for You Am I; The very best of Willy Wonka’s foot pedal store is in place; The crowd moves towards the stage as if drawn by a magnet. Finally He appears; Mr Tim Rogers in an amazing pink velvet jacket with black satin edges. It is as though Jesus (and the crowd) has finally risen from the dead. There are no stragglers now. The crowd hollers with excitement and energy. Rogers finds the bottle of wine immediately, gulps some down and launches into a guitar assault. The backdrop is all psychedelic imagery and within minutes, all band members are dripping with sweat, shirts unbuttoned.

Displaying an array of special dance moves, Rogers eggs on the crowd: “if you guys can’t dance better than a 41 year old man off his face, you should be embarrassed, I want to see you all dance as hard as you can!” Topping his amazing gymnastics, including several half-splits, sorely challenges the crowd who shake their bodies and raise their fists to the beat. They scream the lyrics to every song.

Inciting the crowd to greater involvement, Rogers leans over the stage with his microphone during Damage, and then jumps into the audience who sing with him: “I wrote down what I think on the head of a matchstick. Wrote it all short and sweet…” It is a beautiful and messy moment. Intense, as the singer croons to his ecstatic crowd, but awkward as they watch his unsuccessful drunken attempts to re-join his band members. It’s the moments like these we treasure the most.

The well known intro to The Doors’ The End begins, promising a unique and interesting cover until Rogers, in his best Morrison voice sings “…Father? Yes son, I want a sandwich. With real mayo… so he walked on down to KFC… and he ordered a McSandwich with fries, and another McSandwich with fries… How did the Lizard King become so fat in such a short amount of time?”

The crowd is in tears of laughter and cheer him on. Rogers follows up with “a song by a thin man in a rock band” (referring to himself). Rogers jumps up and down with fury, smashing out hit after hit. Heavy Heart and Cathys Clown have the audience in a frenzy as Rogers’ intoxicated antics provide just as much fun for the crowd as the music itself.

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