| Author | Message | ||
     Steve Docherty Unregistered guest |
Just got back from RF's Adelaide, Sth Australia gig. Really terrific show. Started at 8.30pm (great for old fogies like me) and finished at 10.50 (with an eight minute (count 'em) set break) RF opened solo acoustic, then joined by Adele and then Glenn for the 1st set. The 2nd set was the full band in rockin' electric mode. He played an interesting cross-selection of songs which included Heart Out To Tender, I Can Do, 121, Quiet Heart, Rock n Roll Friend, Demon Days, Spirit, When She Sang About Angels plus many many others. The band seemed very together and the new (very young)drummer fitted in well. I thought they may have beeen a little hesitant this being the 1st proper gig of the world tour but they were extremely relaxed and the rocky songs (German Farmhouse, Here Comes A City etc) were very powerful. Don't miss him! | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 341 Registered: 01-2007 |
Sound very good, good value for money as well good long set. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2554 Registered: 05-2005 |
So the 2nd set was new people or Glenn switching to guitar!?? Steve!? | ||
| Ewan Talisker McEwan Member Username: Ewan_mcewan Post Number: 279 Registered: 02-2008 |
There must not've been a dry eye in the house after Rob did "Quiet Heart". In fact, I'm getting a little verklemt just typing this... | ||
| Peter Azzopardi Member Username: Pete Post Number: 164 Registered: 09-2004 |
Sounds very similar to the Thursday Aug 7 show I went to at the Toff in Town (first Melbourne show). The drummer was the same kid who joined them on the last night of the Four Ages of Robert Forster shows in Brisbane last year. He now lives in Melbourne according to Robert. I spoke to him after the Brisbane show and his father went to high school with Robert. Very good drummer. Nice way to get a gig. Yes Spence, Glenn has moved to guitar and keyboards. I don't really rate him much as a guitarist - though I quite enjoyed it when he played McLennan's guitar lines note for note, as he did to great effect on "I'm Alright". On Thursday Forster and Co. saved the old solo album stuff for the encores. "121" brought the house down. "Heart Out to Tender" was the highlight for me though. The crowd, which had started to chat a little too much after Adele came on in the 1st set for a lovely rendition of "If It Rains", soon went quiet when Glenn joined them for "Demon Days". "Days" works much better live than I imagined. One of the small disappointments of the gig was that they only did four numbers from "The Evangelist". "Pandanus" was another highlight. As others have pointed out, the material was heavily "16LL" and Mark II Go-Bs oriented. They played nothing off "Tallulah" or anything pre-Liberty Belle, though Forster has such a great bag of songs it hardly matters. Randy would be pleased to know that Forster is doing a solo rendition of B-side "Girl Lying on a Beach" at the gigs (song two of the 1st set on my night). In fact, Forster played a tonne of stuff off BYBO. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1703 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks for the reports, Steve and Pete. I'm looking forward to seeing Robert in SF in a month. So that young kid on the drums is continuing on. He IS a good drummer; I remember how obviously jazzed he was to be playing the Powerhouse gig last year. Glenn's certainly a much better guitarist than I am. (Which isn't saying much). He'll get better. Remember how people used to give the ho-hum to his drumming? IMO he ultimately settled into that role very well. It is odd that Robert did so few "Evangelist" songs. I wonder if that will fluctuate a lot from show to show. And, yeah, I love it that he's doing "Girl Lying on a Beach." I hope he does "Quiet Heart" when I see him; I'd really like to hear him tackling that. | ||
| Nic Barnard Member Username: Nic_barnard Post Number: 15 Registered: 06-2005 |
Following Pete and Steve's comments, I've just got home from the second of the three Melbourne nights. As Pete said, the big disappointment was that Robert played only three songs tonight from The Evangelist (If It Rains, Pandanus and Did she Overtake You). In every other respect, it was terrific - Bob's in great voice, the band are pretty tight (slightly hesitant at first on Pandanus but I still loved it). Glenn, ironically, is the guitarist the Go-Betweens never had - he plays the guitar lines on songs like I'm Alright better than Robert or Grant ever did. The arrangements are much closer to the albums. The rest of the night was largely the tried and tested - Draining the Pool, Spring Rain, Make Her Day, Too Much of One Thing, German Farmhouse -- in fact all five of his songs from Rachel Worth. I'd forgotten his inclination to stretch and adapt his solo songs (121, Heart out to tender) while the arrangements of Go-B's songs have always been relatively sacrosanct. Most of all though, hearing Robert sing Quiet Heart unexpectedly in the second set was hugely moving. Finding You as the final song of the night (third encore) had a number of us in tears, but felt very right, and something like a benediction. If only he'd played more from The Evangelist... | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 87 Registered: 10-2006 |
...the young drummer Matt (Matthew)Harrison slipped in with solid drive and timing with skill and feeling. 'Quiet Heart' was breathtaking, it was great to hear 'Clouds'again done in 16LL mode. Pandanus,Did She Overtake You and Demon Days back to a encore of 'People Say'. Robert spoke warmly to our group sitting at the front table at the Hepburn Dinner show. His emotions were quite evident with 'Born to a Family'. In a chat he endeared his courage and will came from Karen and family. I shall never forget any of it, never.Tonite (10 August) to the Toff for the last Melbourne gig this time round. A 'Masterpiece' I'm there with a Head Full of Steam'. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2224 Registered: 05-2005 |
Nice reviews Charles, Nic, Pete and Steve. Looking forward to the Sydney shows. | ||
| Ian Darby Member Username: Jan Post Number: 3 Registered: 10-2006 |
Just back from the Toff gig in Melbourne last night - as the others have said it was a fantastic show. Demon Days brilliant and a beautiful version of Quiet Heart. One more Evangelist song added (the title track) - Robert said it was the first time they have played it live. By the way it was a freezing Melbourne night and Robert arrived with scarf - which he eventually took off after about 45 mins saying his neck was now warm. The other comic touch of note was forgetting the lyrics in Darlinghurst Nights and having to be prompted by the audience. A few local musical identities in the crowd - Evil Graham Lee up front. Regret now that I didn't go to at least one other night here! | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 89 Registered: 10-2006 |
...Robert really was comfortable in the intimate setting of the Toff Sunday 10 August, a warm appreciative crowd, got everything expected. 'Girl on the Beach' came from nowhere and was performed brilliantly, what a great song. Its almost as if Born to a Family, is Robert's Cattle and Cane, baring all, he said as much as well. To all who go to the coming gigs throughout the world, look forward to reading your thoughts, views and critiques. RF is a popstar, captivating as ever, he just confirms it everytime I see him. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1705 Registered: 03-2005 |
These are great reports! I'd love to hear Graham on a future Robert album. | ||
| frank bascombe Member Username: Frankb Post Number: 348 Registered: 01-2007 |
Are there any setlists about for Roberts shows | ||
| Matsrep Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 73 Registered: 10-2005 |
"I'd love to hear Graham on a future Robert album." Randy said. He did of course play on I Had A New York Girlfriend (along with a brilliant group of musicians). One more time maybe? | ||
| Ian Darby Member Username: Jan Post Number: 4 Registered: 10-2006 |
Should also add for Randy that Robert mentioned that they always felt comfortable and 'understood' in 4 cities in the world - Glasgow, Melbourne, Hamburg and San Francisco. Not sure if these change depending on the city he's in at the time - but I have heard him mention it before. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1706 Registered: 03-2005 |
That's an interesting comment from him, Ian. I live in Los Angeles and they only rated a very small venue--albeit a storied one--in 2005. I look forward to observing the SF audience. Matsrep, I totally forgot about NY Girlfriend. That one tends to get the short shrift from me and I haven't played it in a long time. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1339 Registered: 10-2004 |
That statement makes sense. Every time I've seen either Robert or the Go-Betweens in SF (once for the former, thrice for the latter), they were met with gushing enthusiasm and sizable turnouts. Sure, that last SF show in 2005 had the infamy of being (presumably) one of the only shows to have a fist-fight break out in the crowd, but you know... the former epicenter of the "summer of love" is now an ultra-affluent resort town teaming with ultra-tense and prickly yuppies, so what would one expect? As for NY Girlfriend, it's an album I pretend doesn't exist. I never warmed up to it, and agreed with an assessment Robert himself once made of it, that it sounded "rushed." Which is why it always gets short shrift from me. | ||
| Matsrep Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 74 Registered: 10-2005 |
Oh, I really like the album. Some very fine interpretations and good playing. Tell Me It Isn't True, 2541, etc. are very fine. (Every song does not work that well, but ...) And the Woodcut production (RF) work exactly like Robert wants it: warm and no frills. If I remember it right, RF produced both Country Phone and Girlfriend. Neither of them have a dated sound. Another Grahem Lee/Forster link: the song Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness on the wminc comp. Where Joy Kills Sorrow is another gem. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1707 Registered: 03-2005 |
Mea culpa, Matsrep. I remember loving some of the things on "New York GF" and only now discover that I never even loaded it onto iTunes. Ok, oversight corrected. It's Robert's version of "2541" that turned me onto Grant Hart's records in the first place. And I always really liked his version of "Locked Away." "Echo Beach" almost sounds (musically) like it could be a Grant McC song. His version of "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow" is very charming, though I confess I wish he'd either stepped it down to another key or waited til he was in better voice. I've never heard "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" or "Where Joy Kills Sorrow." Hmmm. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 1235 Registered: 01-2005 |
I always liked John Prine's gruff voiced version of the "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness", especially when a female is singing harmony with him. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2564 Registered: 05-2005 |
I really like New York Girlfriend, I see it as the perfect accompaniment to Country Phone. I didn't know half the the originals anyway, so if I never knew it was a covers album I'd still love it., I think the musicianship worked really well with Robert's voice, and looking back on it, it s a perfect set of cover versions. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1340 Registered: 10-2004 |
Spence: Country Phone - now that's an album I love! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 2567 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah it is great jeff, as all Bob's albums are, my least fave is still Warm nights and my fave is Danger. I'll always love Danger more than anything he does solo, because, it was his first outing, and I suppose the period in my life when I first heard it was a very influential time on me. | ||
| Matsrep Member Username: Matsrep Post Number: 75 Registered: 10-2005 |
Fine Randy, I guess that Robert's later dismissal made a lot of people forget the album. There is only one song, "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" on the compilation Where Joy Kills Sorrow (sorry about my messy message above). I also like his Cohen cover ("Tower of Song") on the Cohen tribute I'm Your Fan from 1991/92 with Baby You Know as backing band. Maybe that's where the cover album idea came from. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 1343 Registered: 10-2004 |
The one issue we've yet to tackle, however - is Graham Lee truly evil? He certainly looks harmless. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2227 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think calling Graham Lee evil was the equivalent of calling a very big person tiny. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2228 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, you can still buy Where Joy Kills Sorrow here http://www.wminc.com.au/catalogue1.shtml | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2229 Registered: 05-2005 |
I have it somewhere but I can't find it. I've just been looking. It's very good. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 180 Registered: 02-2007 |
Saw Robert's gig at Powerhouse last night. Truly amazing. On stage for 2 hours, 3 encores, diverse range of songs. Started solo for first 4 songs then joined by Adele for a couple then Glen and then Matthew. Many highlights but in 2nd half of show (after a short intermission) Robert really loosened up. Brilliant versions of GB's Spring Rain, German Farmhouse (I used to not like this song but it needs to be seen/heard live I think) Clouds, Surfin Magazines, He Lives My Life, Make Her Day, Here Comes A City, Born To A Family. Played If It Rains, Demon Days, Pandanus, Evangelist ans Did She Overtake You off Evangelist. 121 was a real standout and Heart Out To Tender saw Robert in the groove (Robert as Elvis!) Perhpas Quiet Heart was the emotional highpoint of the show, if there was just one. What a song. The sound was spot on, apart from a microphone failling in the middleof the show and Adele and Glen had to share one like "Paul and George" Robert suggested. For those of you who were there for "4 Ages of Robert" last year this wasn't on the outside stage but inside. I got talkin to the sound guy after the show and he also did sound at 4 Ages. He expalined how much difficulty they had last year to get the sound right in th outdoor setting and how Robert was much happier with the sound in this setup. It is becoming more obvious that Adele is the rock on which this band is built (the sound I mean) Her bass lines and harmonies just give the overall sound such a unique jangle. Glen does some understated acoustic lead and intersting keyboard too. Matt's drumming adds something and he has fittd in well since we saw him at 4 Ages of Robert last year. (Wish I knew somethin about drummin!) You guys and girls overseas, this is a must see show. If he's not coming to your city in the US, sell something on ebay (the wedding ring, a 1st edition "On The Road", a rare Dylan bootleg) and fly/drive 48 hours to nearest show, do whatever it takes to see this gig. PS Don't think I have mush of a future as music journalist but this was one of the best shows I have seen. | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 90 Registered: 10-2006 |
..well said David, your review sums how I felt with the Melbourne shows I saw...Quiet Heart is stunning, I still wonder why 'Here comes the City' was not a world wide hit...a gem. The tracks RF does from The Evangelist just show this talented man goes forward again...and David you are spot on with Adele, a cornerstone in the band for sure..a must see for all. | ||
| david pestorius Member Username: David_pestorius Post Number: 75 Registered: 08-2005 |
The thing that really strikes me about these new shows is just how reverential to Grant McLennan they are. From the dark stage clothes, to the song selection and arrangements (especially the sweetness of Glenn Thompson's lead guitar playing, which is so reminiscent of Grant as to be uncanny), one gets the feeling that Grant was almost being conjured at times. Having seen three of the shows so far (the Palais in Hepburn Springs, the Sunday show at the Toff — what a great venue — and now the Powerhouse), this reverence keys into and nicely extends the conceptualism of the new album. And like with the album, it's not allowed to overwhelm proceedings with the pop factor never too far away. This pop aspect has bred some nice song groupings, with the segue from 'Pandanus' to 'Surfing Magazines' an unexpected delight that also points up just how beach pop is an important thread in the Forster oeuvre. As mentioned elsewhere Adele's playing and back-up vocals are as rock-solid as ever (her rollacoaster bass lines in 'I Can Do' never cease to amaze and recall those early Warm Nights shows in 1995), while I think we are only beginning to witness the potential of Glenn's shift from drums to the guitar and keyboard — the space that he is opening up here seems so full of possibilities. The new drummer also appears to be settling in well. Last year in the final of the Four Ages shows I felt he looked and sounded nervous, which was perhaps to be expected, but now, a year on, he seems much more relaxed and nicely in the groove. Tip: get your tickets for the upcoming shows (especially for the Sydney shows at the Opera House — an intimate space with acoustics that are hard to beat) before they sell out! | ||
| Fan since I was a youngster Unregistered guest |
Last night's show was one of the best i've ever seen Robert perform, i've still got goose-bumps. Is too hard to pick what was a standout song for me as there were all so good, but Head Full of Steam, Quiet Heart, 121, I Can Do, and People Say all had shivers running up my spine. That man's energy is amazing not to mention the other members of the quartet who were just spectacular. I will remember last night for a very very long time! | ||
| Austin Member Username: Bruegelpie Post Number: 57 Registered: 09-2004 |
Here are a couple of reviews: Finding room to move again:Arts & Culture - MUSIC Guy Blackman, Reviewer. The Age. Melbourne, Vic.:Aug 9, 2008. p. 19 ROBERT FORSTER The Toff In Town, August 7. Until tomorrow (sold out). robertforster.net STEPPING out on stage alone can be daunting for any performer, but for Robert Forster, whose Go-Betweens songwriting partner Grant McLennan died of a heart attack in 2006, it seemed both an act of courage and a statement of intent. In a grey suit and pink shirt, picking simply at an acoustic guitar, Forster began his first Melbourne concert since McLennan's death with the Go-Betweens' Something for Myself - "trapped within an image, unable to move" - and the symbolism could not have been accidental. Forster seemed understandably nervous at first, though still a joy to watch. He added humour and pathos to his stripped-back songs with a raised eyebrow or pursed lips. Still, when bassist Adele Pickvance joined the stage for If it Rains, from recent solo return The Evangelist, he became instantly comfortable and expansive. Demon Days, one of Forster and McLennan's last collaborations, continued the downbeat feel with its prescient lyrics "something's not right, something's gone wrong". Every song in Forster's canon takes on new meaning without McLennan - even a passing reference to Kurt Cobain in She Sang about Angels has a weird resonance. After a 20-minute interval, Forster returned with his full band. The show really took flight when Forster took up an electric guitar, giving the rest of the set a sparkling feel recalling Forster's New York heroes Lou Reed, Television and Jonathan Richman. Go-Betweens classic Head Full of Steam drew a roar of approval from the audience, and new song Pandanus was a highlight, summing up the show at its best - easy, confident, full of warmth and character. McLennan's presence throughout was implicit, rather than openly acknowledged. His name was mentioned just once, before the last song of the evening. [Illustration] Caption: PHOTO: Robert Forster: An eyebrow raised. ---------- From: Villagevoice.com http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/arch ives/2008/08/hugs_and_kisses_48.php Hugs and Kisses The Relocated Outbursts of Everett True This week: Robert Forster Mostly, I sat entranced, lost in a reverie. I was appreciating the restraint being exercised in front of me on stage. I was appreciating the dry humour. I was appreciating the solid, good sound. I was remembering watching Elvis Costello perform at Brighton's Dome when my wife Charlotte was pregnant with our son Isaac, and appreciating the good, solid sound then. I was watching the shadows—a deep, lustrous red and welcoming, lighting up the wall of Brisbane’s Powerhouse space the way the sun hits the deck in the evening. My mind was flickering through the years, I was 19 or 20 again and not quite sure what to make of that awkward, downbeat Australian trio The Go-Betweens when all around was fire and clamour: they sang of dust and shadows and street lights in the rain. And it touched upon a time a few years thence, and how angry I was that I amended my best lyric—my best damn lyric, “Like the middle-eight from a Go-Betweens song”—in its recorded version, because I figured it was too specific. Of course, when I was 23, 24 I didn’t even begin to register why people who read Dostoevsky look like Dostoevsky, and I had no way of knowing how central Go-Betweens would become to my life. So I looked at the shadows. And I listened to the performer, former Go-Betweens singer Robert Forster, recount a story about going down to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park to see Patti Smith play a live show, and how all these famous journalists from across Europe turned up and he was stuck outside with his partner. And I was thinking, I could have been one of those famous journalists he was referring to, it was the right year, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t into classic rock then. Now, I am. In fact, now I so am I’d be prepared to listen to Bob Dylan—something I’ve never been prepared to do my entire life. Now I am, have been ever since The Go-Betweens returned several years back with an album, The Friends Of Rachel Worth which I swear remains my favourite, and not just because Janet Weiss drums on it, but because it features a glut of Forster songs—“German Farmhouse,” “Surfing Magazines,” “He Lives My Life”—that kill me. He performs them all tonight while I’m gazing at the swirling shadows, and it’s my world. Right now, it’s my world. We both live in Brisbane now and it seems less than coincidence, more like predetermination. Man. That’s some heritage right there, former rotten totalitarian state government or not. And I’m enjoying the classic rock, kept under wraps. (That one solitary harmony on “He Lives My Life” is the most perfect solitary harmony this side of Joey Ramone.) Robert’s a great band, augmented by that kid from Flamingo Crash. The lady drummer from I Heart Hiroshima (acolyte of Weiss) is two seats across and she’s consumed with envy. She’s great too, but has way too much personality to be down there on stage. My mind is a hive. I think of former Cannanes drummer David Nichols and his book of The Go-Betweens which I’ll never read, and the way he coaxed me back into making music. I think of my UK band’s failed attempts to record a song for the Grant McLennan tribute album, mainly cos we kept picking on Forster songs by accident, but also because…well, you’ve got to realise. I don’t want to be Robert Forster (to paraphrase an Aussie pop star). Before “Born To A Family,” Forster announces that “this is the story of my life, in three minute, eight seconds pop song” and then the microphone breaks, and he adds “this really is the story of my life” and then no one comes on to fix the mic and he has to switch with his guitarist, and the guitarist and that wonderful former Go-Betweens bassist make like “George and Paul” on the one remaining mic, even bobbing their heads and grinning inanely like they’re on Ed Sullivan… and there are many moments like this, moments like the terrifyingly resonant “121” (second encore) which I mistook for “From Ghost Town” with its full-on rocking and references to “tombstones/cobblestones/those old bones that lie beneath this city," moments where Forster does a soft-shuffle like Nick Cave with his arms above his head, moments like the opening acoustic set where the band is introduced on stage one by one, or third encore “People Say,” which remains a favourite Eighties moment… it’s weird how often Forster references the weather when you consider how little Brisbane’s weather changes from day to day. The following evening, driving down Settlement Road, we witnessed the most glorious sunset, a cascade of fiery reds and ambers and inclement purple. It was the sort of sunset that could change a life. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1719 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thank you Austin. The second of these two reviews is brilliant. It says so much about who the Go Betweens were meant for. | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 92 Registered: 10-2006 |
I've often thought, never questioned, why I love the Go-Betweens so much, how I am able to lean back and into any album or solo of Robert or Grants' being alerted and comforted that what I feel and who I am, I am not alone..nor numb. 'It was the sort of sunset that could change a life'.....yeah I see that.. Roberts show just let me know I'm Alright, Thanks Austin.. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 2259 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks Austin. That's the best writing I've seen by Everett True in about a decade, and maybe the first time I've ever seen him write something where implicitly or explicitly he is not grinding an axe. It's very grown-up writing Everett! | ||
| Catherine Vaughan Member Username: Catherine Post Number: 476 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks Austin for that. Great review. Says so much more than just what songs were played.. |