/Fit In

So this makes three sets in two days. I could die happy right now;-)

The Basics with The Bawdies
The Hopetoun Hotel, Surry Hills
23rd June 2007

After peeling myself off the sofa and wrapping up warm to keep out the cold, I walked the five blocks to the Hopetoun Hotel just in time to catch the Basics going on for their first set of the evening. They started nice and slow, so slow in fact that drummer Wally De Backer didn’t need to take off his grey suit jacket until the third song in, which was a lovely soothing cover of ‘Old Man’ by Neil Young. The audience finally took some notice of what was going on, on stage when they rolled out ‘Three Cool Cats’ and ‘For Girls Like You’. It seemed that the crowd was out for drinking and socialising instead of watching bands which was a shame, because they were on form for the last night of their most recent tour.

When the The Bawdies came on stage, all the Japanese fans pushed their way to the front and jumped about with as much enthusiasm as the band. The heat in the room meant that soon the long fringes on all four band members were sticking to their foreheads in the ohh so attractive way that sweaty fringes do. It didn’t reduce the energy coming from guitarist Jim or lead singer/bass player Roy. And there was never any question of the lines of their brown matching suits being broken. From the beginning to the end of the set they played original songs including their most recent single ‘Baby Sue’, except for a grooving version ‘Mustang Sally’ before closing with ‘I Beg You’. For the first time ever, I saw a support band play an encore, the demand from the crowd meant they weren’t getting off the stage before they gave in and the crowd could die happy, but only after The Basics had come back to play their second set of the evening.

Bawdies Guitarist Jim - quite clearly high on life or something (maybe Lift Plus)

The Three Cool Cats resumed with the full crew wearing the grey suits, black ties and brown big toed boots. After just one song the jacket was off again, and the crowd started jumping in time to the R’n’B and reggae sounds. It was a shame it didn’t last. It seemed that the crowd had paid their money to gain entry to a Band Pub only to stand around and chat. When Kris Schroeder, the bassist sang a song called ‘No Winters Here’ accompanied by only an acoustic guitar the audience didn’t listen or show him the respect of listening to the song he had written and was clearly close to his heart, despite being asked to keep it down by the others before they left the stage. Granted, the song, a beauty by the way, didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the set, but that really didn’t justify the lack of attention.

They rounded the set off with more songs from their new album and even mentioned that ‘Bitten by the Same Bug’ wasn’t a favourite of one of the girls in the audience. A bit of banter later and they finally came back to do an encore of four songs. ‘Call it Rhythm and Blues’ ended the evening on a high note, just after midnight with stacked up chairs appearing as if by magic almost as soon as the last note was played. This is quite possibly the first time I have ever seen chairs in the Hopetoun, there certainly isn’t ever any to sit on and I’m sure it’s not the last ‘We’re Closed’ I’ll ever receive.

This review was sent to the Brag - Here's hoping this time!

After being given a drum stick by Wally in Newcastle, I was just a tad happy and while at the Hopetoun last night Edna asked me when he was there ‘Which was my least favourite Basics song?’ I revealed it was Sound Off and that I always skip it on my iPod, Edna said her choice was Bitten by the Same Bug. As they started playing it Wally said ‘this song isn’t for Frances’ friend, ‘cause she hates it’.

After the gig, I got a poster for Edna and she got all the Basics to sign it and all of the Bawdies. So she’s dead chuffed too! ;-)