This is part one of our series, where we ask some of Melbourne's most passionate music writers to recollect the best gigs they've ever seen.
Beat recently featured Tahney Fosdike’s excellent story about the worst Melbourne gigs of all time (alas poor Meatloaf, may he rest in peace). Now it’s time for the upside – a list of great local gigs that I was lucky enough to attend, in a range of venues including pubs, paddocks (sorry, “Days on the Green”), and stadia.
It’s obviously subjective, and any glaring omissions are mostly due to my non-attendance (for example I have never seen Pink Floyd!), but here are some of my favourite Melbourne gigs of all time, in no particular order, viewed over more than 45 years. Expect part two to have more of a contemporary bent.
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The Angels
Watching the Paris Olympics recently, I was reminded of the witty opening lines of The Angels rocker Marseilles, from their 1978 album Face to Face: “Bought me a box of French cigars/Bought me a black beret/Get my French from the girl next door/Teaching me night and day/Got me thinkin’ ‘bout the south of France/Vis a vis a vous/Pack my suitcase, take a chance/Got nothing to lose.’’
You certainly had nothing to lose attending an Angels gig – they were the best pub rock band I have ever seen, and they’re still going strong. The first time I saw them perform was in about 1982 at, if my memory serves me, the Merimbula RSL Club. But the gig that has stayed with me was at Bombay Rock in Brunswick in January 1983. They were formidable live performers, with their powerful hard rock/metal sound the equal of any band’s, including AC/DC.
The Brewster brothers John and Rick stood statue-like in black sunglasses as charismatic lead singer Bernard ‘’Doc’’ Neeson whirled around them. And what a playlist, belted out with barely a pause, rock classic after rock classic: Take a Long Line; Comin’Down; Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again; No Secrets; Shadow Boxer; the list went on. It was exhilarating. I don’t recall hearing the famous “No way, get fucked, fuck off” crowd chant that night, though. I believe it began later that year at a gig in Mount Isa.
The Divinyls
I saw The Divinyls play at that iconic Mulgrave beer-barn, the Village Green Hotel, in late July 1982. Lead singer Christina Amphlett was wearing her signature schoolgirl dress and her bad-girl attitude, a brilliant raging affront to all who thought girls should sing politely and know their place.
She strutted, posed and gyrated her way around the stage, as we lucky punters looked on in amazement, and sometimes bewilderment. The rest of the band, led by co-founder and songwriter Mark McEntee, deftly swung through a wide range of musical styles, from hard rock (Boys in Town) to commercial pop (Only Lonely). The highlight for me was Elsie, a powerful and haunting ballad about a sad, lonely woman contemplating suicide: “Standing on ledges/Clinging to the edges/The world’s a hard place to land on’’. Spinechilling!
Mental As Anything
The Mentals were one of Australia’s best live acts over a long period of time, their gigs joyous occasions where punters regularly danced on the tables. I first saw them play at the Tathra Hotel on the south coast of NSW, but unfortunately, after a day in the sun and too many schooners of Tooheys New, that gig is a blur.
Later, back in good old Melbourne, I went with some mates to see them again at the Manhattan Hotel, on the corner of Heatherdale and Canterbury Roads, Ringwood, one Saturday night in early January 1984. They were brilliant – witty, entertaining, slightly self-deprecating, and excellent musically.
We all sang along happily to the stream of hits and album favourites: The Nips Are Getting Bigger; Come Around; Too Many Times; If You Leave Me, Can I Come Too; it was more like a party than a gig!
Cindy Lauper and Blondie
This double-header gig was at Rochford Wines, Maroondah Hwy, Coldstream, on Saturday 8 April 2017. It was remarkable not just for the quality of the performances, but for the powerful electrical storm that hit just prior to Deborah Harry and Blondie’s arrival on stage, delaying the start and drenching the crowd.
Both acts were superb despite the weather, Blondie performing a mix of new and older material and closing with Heart of Glass and Dreaming, while Cindy Lauper included Patsy Cline’s country classic Walkin’ After Midnight in a set which brimmed with hits and closed with Girls Just Want To Have Fun, followed by an encore of Time After Time. Outdoor concerts can be exasperating affairs at times, an unfortunate amalgam of bad weather, traffic congestion and indifferent sound quality, but this one was a great success despite the adversity.
Leonard Cohen
This concert was at the Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday 20 November 2013, and I remember it for two reasons. Firstly, it was a magnificent three hours-plus of Leonard Cohen’s extraordinary music, beautifully played and presented; secondly, my sister and I got lost trying to take a shortcut on exiting the stadium. We were probably too overwhelmed by the glorious concert we had just enjoyed to remember how to navigate.
Cohen and his excellent band began with Dance Me to the End of Love, and I recall it was a gentle introduction to a concert that was the equal of anything I have ever seen. Bird on a Wire followed soon after; Tower of Song, a personal favourite; Suzanne; Chelsea Hotel, then The Partisan (‘’I took my gun, and vanished…’’). So Long Marianne and Famous Blue Raincoat were in there too amongst the more than two dozen songs. The concert ended with a third (wryly humorous) encore of I Tried to Leave You. Thank you, Leonard, we’ll never forget you.
Bruce Springsteen
I have seen The Boss a few times, but this is the gig that stands out above all the others, possibly because it was the first time I and most others in the crowd had seen him and The E Street Band perform live.
The date was 3 April 1985, and it was a Wednesday. Instead of processing motor vehicle registrations at the MRB in Carlton, I had queued all afternoon with friends and thousands of others at the Melbourne Show Grounds. This gig was part of his Born in the USA tour, which had stretched from its first show in Saint Paul, Minnesota, through Europe and Asia and now to Melbourne.
Interestingly, the song that I recall most vividly wasn’t Thunder Road, The River or another of the many masterworks that he and The E Street Band played so superbly that night. It was Johnny 99, from his stark 1982 acoustic album, Nebraska.
In a memorable and dramatic change of gear about five songs in, Springsteen, playing solo on an acoustic guitar, sings us the story of a retrenched New Jersey factory worker pushed to the limit: ‘’Well they closed down the auto plant in Mahwah late that month/ Ralph went out looking for a job, but he couldn’t find none/ He came home too drunk from mixing Tanqueray and wine/ He got a gun, shot a night clerk/ Now they call him Johnny 99’’.
The whole three and a half hour-plus show was exceptional, but for whatever reason, the memory of that particular song has stayed with me after all these years.
Check out some of the best Melbourne gigs of the last decade here.
