British India/Diesel/Something For Kate
Pioneer Women’s Memorial Park, Kings Park
Saturday, March 29, 2014
The 2013/14 An Evening On The Green season came to a close this weekend at Kings Park with two sell-out shows from Hunters & Collectors. This was the band’s first national tour since 1998. Since then the band have played a few one off shows, including Sound Relief in 2009 and, most recently, the half time show at the AFL Grand Final in 2013. The tour has seen them on the road since January with a string of winery and theatre dates around the country and a support slot on the recent Bruce Springsteen tour in Melbourne.
The evening kicked off with Melbourne indie rock outfit British India, who warmed up the crowd playing their entire set in the rain. The group acknowledged the early comers who were brave enough to face the rain.
Nearly stealing the show from the main act, Diesel and his band performed an electrifying set that got the crowd singing, clapping and dancing along to his biggest hits Man Alive, Come To Me, Tip Of My Tongue and Cry In Shame.
Something For Kate, fronted by Paul Dempsey opened with an REM cover of The One I Love before performing songs from their back catalogue, which made them one of the country’s most influential indie rock bands of the ‘90s. They later performed an upbeat rocky version of Calvin Harris’ Sweet Nothing before closing with Miracle Cure.
The rain was all but gone as soon as Hunters & Collectors walked out on stage. The band opened the main set with Talking To A Stranger. Mark Seymour instantly greeted the crowd in no other way than ‘G’day.’ He was very entertaining, making jokes and telling stories. He told the crowd that he gets nervous when playing his acoustic guitar and from there the band broke into Holy Grail, which received a massive applause from the crowd. The duration of their set was over two hours and the main set included This Morning, Dog, When The River Runs Dry and closing off with Do You See What I See.
The band returned for an eight song encore which included their biggest pub anthem, Throw Your Arms Around Me with Seymour describing it as a song for everybody and that a song 35 years old still means so much now than what it use to. He took a moment to thanks those who saw the band perform at the Old Melbourne, Fitzgerald Hotel and Red Parrot many years ago. The night finished with a Saints cover of Know Your Product with a little help from Something For Kate.
LUKE REYNOLDS
