[Live Review] BOB EVANS

Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Thursday May 9, 2013 :

Cuddles, Knuckles, Basement Bird, Jebediah frontman – Kevin Mitchell is a man of many names but it was under the Bob Evans moniker that Mitchell took to the stage at the Cambridge Hotel on Thursday night, just past the halfway mark on his “Familiar Stranger” tour.

Those who turned up early caught a stripped back version of dreamy indie Sydney-based five-piece, Tigertown. Married bandmates, Chris and Charlie Collins, appeared without the rest of the band but had the slowly growing crowd spellbound showing off their perfect harmonies with just an electric and acoustic guitar accompaniment.

Man of the hour, Mitchell, also appeared without a band. Reading the post from Bob Evans HQ on Facebook earlier in the week that Mitchell would be bringing his sound to the Cambridge in solo format, I must admit I was a little uneasy. Will a man who has been in a rock band for almost 20 years be able to hold his own on stage? Yeah, I’ve seen Bob Evans play a fair few shows over the years but it’s always been with a band. On the other hand, raw unadulterated Bob Evans would be bliss!

Happily, Mitchell was well within his element alone on stage, charming the audience with goofy jokes, mostly at his own expense, with anecdotes about life on the road and coming back to Newcastle. He opened the set with a cover of the Divinyls classic, ‘I Touch Myself’, no doubt a tribute to Chrissy Amphlett who passed away last month after a battling breast cancer and multiple sclerosis. The night’s 18-track setlist covered all four Bob Evans LPs, with the bulk of the set comprised of material from Mitchell’s latest release, Familiar Stranger, and his breakthrough second record under Bob Evans, the ARIA Award winning, Suburban Songbook. The stripped back set put Mitchell’s lyrics front and centre with highlights coming in the form of ‘Darlin’ Won’t You Come’ and ‘Sitting in the Waiting Room’.

But it was ‘Don’t You Think It’s Time?’ that punters would have been talking about at work on Friday morning. Mitchell unplugged his fairy-light adorned guitar and took a stroll around the venue in a massive singalong. Ever the charmer, Mitchell complimented the crowd on their vocal skills asking, “Is this some kind of YouTube video shit where everyone in the audience is actually a member of the Newcastle Youth Choir?” This display was followed up with an obvious Novocastrian crowd pleaser, ‘Pasha Bulker’.

Returning to the stage for a four-song encore, Mitchell took requests from the crowd. Ignoring overwhelming requests for Jeb’s favourite ‘Harpoon’, Mitchell belted out ‘For Today’ from Suburban Kid and ‘Rocks in my Head’ from Suburban Songbook before capping off the evening with ‘Me and My Friend’, an appropriate end to such an intimate show, and the weep-worthy and utterly beautiful ‘Wonderful You’.

Reviewer: Amelia Parrott
Photographer: Glen Pearson

Set List
I Touch Myself (Divinyl’s cover)
Maps
Nowhere Without You
Hand Me Downs
Don’t Want to Grow Up Anymore
Darlin’ Won’t You Come
Sitting in the Waiting Room
Brother O Brother
Friend
Someone So Much
Go
Sadness and Whiskey
Don’t You Think It’s Time
Pasha Bulker

Encore:
For Today
Rocks in My Head
Me and My Friend
Wonderful You

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