The Wedding Present - Adelaide, 12th April 2012
Words: Rob Lyon
The Wedding Present Australian tour! Really? With a stop-off In Adelaide? Seriously?! It has taken twenty seven years, but finally Leeds indie rock band The Wedding Present have finally made it Down Under. Being the only constant member, David Gedge is joined onstage by a line up consisting of Pepe le Moko, Charles Layton and Patrick Alexander, all of which seem pretty pumped to be playing their first gig of the tour.
Jive proved to be a great venue for The Wedding Present, as a small group of die hard UK indie music lovers assembled to watch one of those rare gems that really should have been witnessed by many more people. At the height of their powers they had a run of twelve top thirty singles in a twelve month period, and have continued to consistently fair well on the UK charts, however Australia never really proved to be a terribly informed market and somehow missed much of the hype. Unlikely as it may be that this will change now, it was a down right treat to finally catch the band live.
Straight out of the blocks Back Of It set the tone for the evening and most seemed to know the words, singing along joyously, or if not, simply just up for a dance. My Favourite Dress, off the George Best album, got a few cheers and a taster from the new album Valentina, The Girl From The DDR was a ripper and a half, played out with some nice fist punches from front man David Gedge. It didn’t take long for Gedge to take a brief moment and speak to the crowd announcing that “it’s only taken us twenty seven years to play our first concert in Australia” riling up further cheers when he announced they’d be playing the bands 1991, Steve Albini produced album Seamonsters (coincidentally their most successful album) in its entirety, but not before a few more tracks.
Jive proved to be a great venue for The Wedding Present, as a small group of die hard UK indie music lovers assembled to watch one of those rare gems that really should have been witnessed by many more people. At the height of their powers they had a run of twelve top thirty singles in a twelve month period, and have continued to consistently fair well on the UK charts, however Australia never really proved to be a terribly informed market and somehow missed much of the hype. Unlikely as it may be that this will change now, it was a down right treat to finally catch the band live.
Straight out of the blocks Back Of It set the tone for the evening and most seemed to know the words, singing along joyously, or if not, simply just up for a dance. My Favourite Dress, off the George Best album, got a few cheers and a taster from the new album Valentina, The Girl From The DDR was a ripper and a half, played out with some nice fist punches from front man David Gedge. It didn’t take long for Gedge to take a brief moment and speak to the crowd announcing that “it’s only taken us twenty seven years to play our first concert in Australia” riling up further cheers when he announced they’d be playing the bands 1991, Steve Albini produced album Seamonsters (coincidentally their most successful album) in its entirety, but not before a few more tracks.
Pushing on, the new album got a going over with Meet Cute and Dear Caught In The Headlights following in quick succession. Gedge was feeling confident echoing the sentiment that “now we’re rocking”. With a reference to getting old, the band smashed their way through the 1988 classic Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?
Definitely shaping up to be a memorable gig, the band finish off the first part of the set with You Jane and Kennedy. Gedge pretty much indicated he wouldn’t be saying much for the next portion of the show as he did not want to ruin the flow of playing Seamonsters from start to finish. This was a real treat and in short, just awesome. There are so many great songs from this album including the likes of Dalliance, Suck, Dare and Lovenest. It is certainly an album worth seeking out if you can find it.
Time flies when you’re having fun, and not much could be truer as the Seamonsters portion of the set came to an end. Gedge promptly informed the crowd that they don’t play encores and seemed to appreciate the crowd’s displeasure of such. Brassneck was great and there’s definitely something in the song title of the closing track to leave the punters with the closing thought; You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends. Here’s to hoping that it’s not another twenty seven years before The Wedding Present return to our shores, cos as Gedge bluntly stated “we’d likely be dead”.
Definitely shaping up to be a memorable gig, the band finish off the first part of the set with You Jane and Kennedy. Gedge pretty much indicated he wouldn’t be saying much for the next portion of the show as he did not want to ruin the flow of playing Seamonsters from start to finish. This was a real treat and in short, just awesome. There are so many great songs from this album including the likes of Dalliance, Suck, Dare and Lovenest. It is certainly an album worth seeking out if you can find it.
Time flies when you’re having fun, and not much could be truer as the Seamonsters portion of the set came to an end. Gedge promptly informed the crowd that they don’t play encores and seemed to appreciate the crowd’s displeasure of such. Brassneck was great and there’s definitely something in the song title of the closing track to leave the punters with the closing thought; You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends. Here’s to hoping that it’s not another twenty seven years before The Wedding Present return to our shores, cos as Gedge bluntly stated “we’d likely be dead”.