Wagons, Matt Banham @ TransitBar, Canberra (23/6/11)

Sun 26th Jun, 2011 in Gig Reviews

On a fresh night in a Canberra and with a fire raging just up the road, Transit Bar was the place to be to forget about all that and witness some awesome live country/blues music.

The night kicked off when Matt Banham took the stage and begun singing his own name over and over again to make sure the Canberra crowd knew who they were about to see. His set was predominantly made up of poppy-sounding songs, thanks to the heavy use of a sampler, with a couple serious folk songs thrown in for good measure. Although the set felt a little confused about its direction, a quirky cover of Icehouse’s Electric Blue paved the way. Banham’s ability to entertain with his dance moves and stage presence made sure that people had fun and were warmed up for the headliners. The epic atmosphere he created ended as he left the stage to the Jurassic Park theme.

The place was packed as Wagons arrived on stage and they had the crowd pumped from the very beginning. Opening with songs from their new album Rumble, Shake and Tumble, the song Downlow was the one that got people up the front dancing and as they moved into Save Me, frontman Henry Wagons seemed to be channelling the soul and voice of a Southern bluesman.

The banter between songs showed off the band’s sense of humour and Wagons had the audience laughing at every chance he got. The story of their keyboard player Matty ‘Soft Moods’ Hassett, being stuck in his “fire prone” room upstairs due to being ill led them to dedicate the song Drive All Night ‘til Dawn to him. It was a bluesy, road-trippin’ tune that had everyone moving, from the people up the front dancing enthusiastically, to the people at the back simply tapping their feet to the beat.

As they rolled into an Elvis Presley inspired cover of Never Been to Spain Wagons seemed to feed off of their audience’s energy and put it right back into their performance to deliver one of the night’s highlights.

The fire up the road seemed to be the night’s running joke and there was no stopping them as another one of their jests lead into new song Love is Burning. This track had a darker, almost Nick Cave feel to it and was heavier than the songs that had come before it. Willie Nelson of the new album was the crowd favourite and had everyone, even the pool players, singing at the top of their lungs, and when front man Wagons made his way into the crowd and demanded they sing louder, everyone was more than happy to oblige, singing so loudly that the building seemed to shake. As they finished the song, Wagons informed the audience that he was a bit worn out and, as had happened a few times at this show, instruments were traded. He ended up behind the drum kit as bassist Si the Philanthropist took up the mic and, from out of no where, launched into some straight up hip-hop. Although it did seem very out of place in a set consisting of nothing but country/blues songs thus far, it drew the crowd in even more and had them eagerly agreeing with Wagons when he proclaimed at the end of the song “We are a bunch of multi-talented motherfuckers aren’t we!?”

Wagons put on a very tight, entertaining show and displayed their multiple talents in music, humour and just having the gift of the gab. The people in attendance could see the love they have for what they do and the band’s need to entertain fans. At the end of the night, after an encore of Man Sold and a song encouraging people to end up behind bars, everyone went home knowing they had just seen a fantastic show.