Australian Idle

After a day in Melbourne on Saturday, I crossed town in the rain and met Melissa in Richmond for dinner. We had a rather unexpected and inadvertent fine dining experience at Union Dining, which was pretty good.

We then ducked back down Swan Street to get to The Corner, and arrived into the band room as Heath Cullen was playing his opening set. The room was set up with tables of couples, with candles, all set around the edge of the dance floor. A strange setting for the front man of The Whitlams!

Second on the bill was Gossling, who delivered her piano and unusual Julia-Stone-like voice with charm. Among her own tracks, her and her band also gave us the cover she did for Triple J's Like A Version, I Just Dance The Way I Feel, which is awesome.

The room filled further, although not to capacity, for Tim Freedman to deliver his solo release album launch. Having listened to the new album once, and also reading some of the reviews from the album and the show, I was not sure what to expect. But Tim, being the ultimate Aussie musical showman, delivered. Even with this 70s pop inspired direction! He also had a couple of female musicians in his band on stage, which felt completely new.

Playing most of the new album, with stand out tracks like Old Man, Peter Brown and Misty, this collection of songs are all third person, but about a person. Tim introduced Girlfriend Heaven as the conversation you have with your 5 year old daughter to explain the disappearance of a girl from her life. My, he has become a grown up!

Heckled by one of the people up the front who had been standing stage side all night, Tim was sharp with his wit and puns, and his tirade on the TV show Spicks And Specks. A few random rants, and he was alternating white wine and water while playing....he also talked about having a birthday the day before.

He slipped The Whitlam's Beauty In Me in the middle of the set, but filled his double encore with the tracks the faithful gathered longed to hear - Fall For You, Keep The Light On, and You Sound Like Louis Burdett. Leaving us with Blow Up The Pokies, it was always going to be hard not to play such tracks. But the live version of his new songs has me returning for further listens to the album.