Support acts Good Boy and Hockey Dad set the tone for the night, each delivering rollicking sets. The room was all but empty as Good Boy played, which was a shame because they tore it up, but they had fun with it – joking about the lack of people present for their set.
Hockey Dad followed, giving it their all. Drummer Billy Fleming’shead looked like it was going to fly right off his neck as he head banged his way through their set while frontman Zach Stephenson’s fingers were a blur as they flew up and down his guitar.
The anticipation was palpable when Grinspoon stormed the stage. Needing no introduction, they launched straight into Pressure Tested and the crowd immediately turned into a riotous mosh. Frontman Phil Jamieson danced frenetically from the get go, leaving no inch of the stage uncovered.
The band proceeded to play Guide To Better Living from start to finish, producing a sound so pristinely true to the album it was as if they were touring a recent release rather than an album they’d recorded two decades ago.
The anniversary tour serves as Grinspoon’s first headline run and second string of live performances in four years – since the band called a hiatus in 2013 – but watching them deliver an outstandingly tight performance you’d never know it.
Jamieson’s vocals were sheer perfection throughout the performance, as if not a day had passed since he recorded the tracks at 20 years old. He didn’t miss a single beat as he shouted the fast-paced lyrics of tracks like Pedestrian and NBT, never pausing for a breath despite constantly climbing and jumping off every elevated surface in sight as he sang. He alternated between guttural screaming and cool clean vocals as well as delivering throaty yodelling in Scalped.
Grinspoon barely broke a sweat as they effortlessly smashed out track after track, meanwhile the mosh was a pit of flying sweat and swinging limbs. “It’s so great to be playing here at the marriage equality arena,” shouted Jamieson. “Love is love. This song is about being in love,” he declared before the band delivered Just Ace.
Towards the tail end of the gig, Jamieson picked up an acoustic guitar for Bad Funk Stripe, giving the crowd a chance to take a breather, as the band delivered a beautiful rendition of the album’s tamest song.
When the album was through, the band left the stage and the crowd went wild, until at last almost all of the members returned to the stage. Jamieson was nowhere in sight, though he could be heard singing the opening verse of the band’s hit song, Chemical Heart. Finally, the crowd spotted him at the back of the arena, everyone craning their necks between the stage and where Jamieson stood.
He returned to the stage, and they pulled out a string of hits including as Lost Control and Hard Act To Follow, finishing with More Than You Are which concluded with a confetti canon shower.
Grinspoon more than proved they still know how to put on one hell of a show. The band’s energy never wavered throughout their 90-minute set and their massive grins showed they loved every minute of it.
Highlight: Every single aspect of Grinspoon’s set. I’ve been to a lot of gigs and theirs was hands down one of the best I’ve seen.
Lowlight: Being too young to have seen them play when they first released the album. If this is the energy they can bring 20 years later, I would have loved to see them perform it fresh.
Crowd Favourite: Just Ace.
