Metro Theatre, Sydney
Thursday March 1, 2018 :
Veruca Salt’s original 90’s line up of Louise Post, Nina Gordon, Jim Shapiro and Steve Lack rocked the Metro stage in Sydney last night and did not disappoint the crowd with their heavy hitting, riff laden style of grunge rock. Post and Gordon took the stage first and opened with a stripped back version of ‘Wolf’ from their 1994 debut album American Thighs, their voices blending so beautifully together you wonder why they ever parted ways, with Shapiro and Lack joining halfway through.
The band then blasted though the next four songs, hardly taking a breath in between to ensure that the crowd was well and truly rocked. ‘Shimmer Like a Girl’ from the wonderfully named 1996 EP Blow it out your ass, it’s Veruca Salt was followed by ‘The Gospel According to Saint Me’ from their latest album Ghost Notes and while the two tracks were released nearly 20 years apart they both pack a punch with crunchy guitars and power riffs throughout.
Gordon and Post both had an engaging stage presence as they interacted with each other and the crowd that they so clearly love and appreciate. ‘Forsythia’ and ‘Straight’ followed and Gordon and Post took a minute to talk to the crowd and thank everyone for coming to the show, as well as reciprocating expressions of love and gratitude offered up by their fans.
The Metro is my favourite venue in Sydney, the intimacy it offers and the pinball machine contribute to this, but it is the tiers in the viewing area that put this venue far above others for myself. This enables someone as short as I am to see and hear the band ever so clearly from the top row of the tiers, without my face being stuck in someone’s sweaty back for the whole performance preventing me from hearing or seeing anything! It was a perfect sized venue for a band who have enjoyed considerable success in Australia, their first album charted at no. 26 while in The States it only got to no. 69.
The next set of songs was no different to the first in that there were no gaps and the end of each bled into the start of the next. No time to stop, we must rock! Three more tracks from Ghost Notes with an anecdote about ‘Empty Bottle’ and how they came up with the song when they reformed to record their first full length album since 1997. This second lot ended with a bang as the group ripped through their first single, 90’s grunge anthem ‘Seether’ to which the crowd enthusiastically sang along – then straight into ‘Shutterbug’ with its heavy dirty riffs, call and response and sing/scream along moments like “You monkey you left me!“. Their live performance feels heavier and punchier than their recordings and kicks you in the guts in a way that only live music can.
A fair number of people the crowd enthusiastically roared when asked if they were at the ’97 Veruca Salt show at the Metro, Lack admitted he had no recollection of the show and Post touched on the relationship issues that plagued her during that tour. The last set of five songs included older favourites ‘Benjamin’, my personal favourite ‘Volcano Girls’ and ended with ‘Earthcrosser’, another much-loved track.
Then the band did something that I personally dislike – the ‘fake’ encore – where the group pretends the show is over and says goodbye, even though they are planning to play more songs after they wait for the crowd to chant their name and make a triumphant return to the stage. I am usually of the opinion that they should “just play the song man!” because if they didn’t waste the time going off stage then they could have played an extra song. But the group smashed through their earlier songs so quickly that along with the encore they played 20 songs in total over the night – and I can’t complain about that! The encore consisted of 4 more songs from their first two albums ending with “Spiderman ‘79” to finish up a great night of grungy rock, but I was left thinking “Leave me, lying here, cause I don’t wanna go!” and I hope they come back to Australia again soon to rock us senseless.
Reviewer : Alison Chisholm
Photographer : Joshua South
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