It’s an early start tonight with the UK’s David Ford on stage at 7:30pm sharp, and already a few fans have claimed the sought after front positions.

Ford is a one-man band creating the sound of a five-piece. In ‘Cheer Up (You Miserable Fuck)’, he loops several instruments, starting with the guitar, darting over to the piano and then moving over to the 50s-style mic. As though that’s not enough, he throws in looped shaker and tambourine and sings into the mic, one foot on the amp and looking like a tortured soul.

At times, Ford is reminiscent of fellow British singer/songwriter Tom McRae. He’s endearing and witty, saying one song is a love song. Not an “I’m staying with you because I love you” love song, but a “because of the sex” love song. In ‘State of the Union’ he screams “It’s a shame” over and over, bashing wildly at the piano in discordant notes and layering his looped vocals. Stripping back it all back, Ford closes on the piano with a song about everything – America, England, religion and the weather. At one point you can hear the strength and purity in his naked voice as he stills the piano and goes acapella.

Ford has a commanding presence on stage and you can clearly see his passion – he’s an absolute joy to watch.

Jolie Holland, on the other hand, is summed up in one word – boring. I haven’t seen a performer as dull as her for a long time. She has the look, but there’s no variation in her songs. Judging by the high talk factor during her set, this is a sentiment shared by several other people.

Thinking ill thoughts of Holland on the way to the toilet, I slip and nearly break my leg in front of the Red Cross people. Karma. I return and Holland is still grinding on and starting to test pain thresholds. She lacks stage presence and has a country drawl that has what it takes to bring country inbreds out of the woodwork for a Valium style barn dance. She may as well have been singing some inbred language, because you couldn’t understand a word she was saying.

Just as I’m feeling like I’m about to go and deliberately slip and smash my face into the concrete, her set is over.

I’ve been a long term Augie March fan and have watched the band progress over the years. Recently, the band’s crowd seems to have gotten much younger, and I felt like a menopausal woman standing next kids that looked like they were still learning to count to 10.  

Augie March’s live shows used to be either a ramshackle affair of temperamental Glenn Richards tantys or these amazing things that shift the bones in your body and leave you shaking. Now, some ordinary factor seems to have crept into their gigs and it seems like the band is just going through the motions and don’t really care who they’re playing to.

Richards comes out wearing a ‘Fuck you you fuckin’ fuck’ t-shirt. The band opens with the ‘Baron of Sentiment’, and from there, they basically play everything off Moo, You Bloody Choir, which was disappointing. It can be hard to let go of the past, but what happened to Sunset Studies songs? The lack of them is bleedingly obvious tonight, evident in several people grumbling about it on the way out.

When the band breaks into ‘One Crowded Hour’, girls next to me scream like they’re at a Beatles’ concert – this is obviously Augie March’s new hit song. Several girls looked like they would happily endure being stomped in the face with spur boots if it was inflicted by Richards. Who would have thought he would be a pin-up boy. Maybe Augie March will be the next Beatles, with fan-girl screamers throwing undies on the stage.

The highlight of the night was a Cold Chisel cover of Janelle, which saw Dave Williams move from behind the drums and take up vocal duties. This was about the only point when the band seemed to be enjoying themselves, with Richards at ease on his knees rock-style, looking up at Williams smiling. Another high point was when Richards flashed his shirt to a bogan sounding yeller in between songs.

Augie March has copped some flak from fans about their recent shows, and even though Richards has said the band played their arses off for this Enmore gig, it seems the passion has dissolved from the band. Maybe they’re trying too hard - I don’t know - but I’ve come to expect great things of Augie March, and ordinary just doesn’t cut it. How disappointing.