Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Saturday March 24, 2018 :
With a line for entry snaking all the way up to The Duke for at least 40 minutes before The Smith Street Band were about to start, when I finally made my way inside I was not surprised to see that The Enmore Theatre was packed to the brim with punters ready for a rock show. After a few false starts and erroneous cheering for the stage techs, Wil Wagner appeared on stage and the opening riff to ‘It Kills Me To Have To Be Alive’ rang out to eager ears and was met with raucous applause. The rest of the band appeared on stage bit by bit and next launched into ‘Birthdays’ and then straight into ‘Surrey Drive’ and ‘Song For You’ with no mucking around between songs. Wil then addressed the crowd and seemed genuinely blown away by the sheer number of people that had come to see their band.
Wil spoke about the meaning behind the next song ‘I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore’ and encouraged those who suffer from mental health issues and relayed just how happy he was at that moment to the crowd and thanked them for their part in that. Wil’s lyrics are deeply personal and he seems to me to have this ability to tell a story through song, and have the listener feel as though they are right there with him. The Enmore was well and truly rocked with ‘Wipe That Shit Eating Grin Of Your Punchable Face’ followed by more mellow ‘The Arrogance Of The Drunk Pedestrian’ and ‘Something I Can Hold In My Hands’ and one of my personal favourites ‘Surrender’ all coming from their third studio album, Throw Me in the River (2014)and then finished this section with ‘Shine’ from latest album More Scared of You Than You Are of Me (2017).
Wil took a break here to talk to the crowd, his stage presence and ability to engage the audience had the crowd hanging on his every word. The next song was introduced as an older one, ‘When I Was A Boy I Thought I Was A Fish’ from their first studio album No One Gets Lost Anymore but the majority of the crowd knew all of the words to this and ‘Young Drunk’ from Sunshine and Technology (2012) by which Wil and the rest of the band seemed genuinely blown away. Latest single ‘Passiona’ was next and the band then left the stage.
I wrote about this in my last review and I absolutely implore any bands reading this to PLEASE stop doing the “fake” encore that has become an expected part of live shows in the last 10 or so years. An encore is defined as a repeated or additional performance at the end of a concert as called for by an audience. When a band has not yet played one of their biggest singles (i.e. ‘Death To The Lads’) and they feign exiting the stage as if they are finished, you know it’s complete and utter crap and they must be playing more. After a good amount of time the band came back and played ‘The Belly of Your Bedroom’, ‘Lads’ and ‘I Love Life’ which were well received by the crowd. But I couldn’t help thinking that they could have easily played one more song in the time they went off the stage, and they had omitted one of my faves, ‘Get High, See No-one’ which I am sure they could have played had they not wasted time on the encore sham.
“Fake” encore aside, this was a tight live show from a band that is a ‘must see’ live for any fan, with no mucking around between songs, polished songs that sound as good as the recording, and a great frontman in Wil Wagner with his ability to engage a crowd with his stage presence and deeply personal lyrics.
Reviewer : Alison Chisholm
Photographer : Joshua South
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