Review: Eskimo Joe at Freo.Social

Eskimo Joe at Freo.Social
w/ Alex Lloyd, Boox Kid
Friday, May 1, 2026

Hometown shows don’t come as domiciled as an Eskimo Joe performance in Fremantle. And when you throw in a night dedicated to the band’s landmark 2006 album, Black Fingernails, Red Wine, it’s no surprise the local luminaries sold out three consecutive nights at Freo.Social last weekend. In celebration of the album’s 20th anniversary, Eskimo Joe has embarked on a national tour, playing the record from start to finish. The album isn’t the only part of the band’s legacy its members are reacquainting themselves with, having also invited Alex Lloyd to join the tour.

In 2002, Lloyd was at the height of his musical ascendance, riding high on the back of his seminal 2001 album Watching Angels Mend. The album not only featured the Triple J Hottest 100-topping song, Amazing, but also earned the Sydney singer-songwriter the ARIA Award for Best Male Artist. At the time, Eskimo Joe were finding traction with their debut album, Girl. The record also delivered the band ARIA Award recognition. Being nominated for Breakthrough Artist that year inspired Lloyd to take the trio out on the road with him.

The reunion had to bide its time, however, as the first to take the stage on Friday night was the genre-crossing Boox Kid. Fronted by local musician Jarred Wall, Boox Kid is not only an outlet for Wall’s scenic electronic pop but also his dreamy self-reflection. In addition to writing beat-driven acoustically tinged compositions, Wall also sculpts their elaborate production. For this outing Boox Kid was in duo mode with Wall on acoustic guitar and Jonathan Chong on electric guitar. Their delicate instrumental executions were underpinned by lush prerecorded beat-driven soundscapes.

The duo opened their 30-minute set with When I Was a Young Boy, with the song’s bass-laden backings coloured with airy acoustic and electric guitar. While the front-of-house mix gave rise to some bass-induced clipping and distortion, Boox Kid’s impeccably crafted songs and Wall’s exquisite vocal execution were beyond reproach. In addition to songwriting and sound design, Wall also works in theatre and opera, recently performing one of the two leads in Gina Williams and Guy Ghouse’s West Australian Opera’s production of Wundig wer Wilura.

With Post Card followed by Landslide, Boox Kid next presented a series of songs blending English and Noongar. Ngany Kaartdijin (On My Mind) was a lush serving of emotionally deceptive up-tempo indie pop about anxiety and grief, while Barang Ngalang Kadjin (SOS) was a spritely pop gem exploring slowing down and reconnecting. Both songs were drawn from Boox Kid’s forthcoming EP, Kalyakoorl (Forever), which is scheduled for release later this month. To close out the set, Boox Kid flexed its musical dexterity with the lavish beat-driven I Don’t Mind, countered by the gorgeous and airy acoustics of Bird on a Wire.

A quick reset brought Alex Lloyd to the stage. Having enjoyed a front-row seat for the fellow Balmainite’s musical ascension—from grinding out a career with the blues rock ensemble Mother Hubbard to going solo and becoming Amazing—seeing Lloyd walk out onto the Freo.Social stage is a testament to his musical and personal resilience. While there may have been wrinkles to Lloyd’s career, the constant has been his songs—melodic, introspective, and brutally honest—precisely what he unleashed from the stage across his 45-minute set. With a shiver in his voice, Lloyd opened with Never Meant to Fail from his 2005 self-titled album before displaying his vocal depth with Beautiful. Underpinned by the assertive strumming of his acoustic guitar, the song was a growlingly empathetic ode to parting ways.

After soliciting the crowd for potential requests, Lloyd delved into his landmark 2001 album Watching Angels Mend for a couple of songs. After leading off with the insanely melodic Green, the singer-songwriter affirmed his affinity for crafting timelessly resolute melodies that invade your soul with the melancholic Everybody’s Laughing. While the title track from Lloyd’s 1999 album, Black the Sun, darkened the tones further, it was no less inflicting. The singer-songwriter’s extroverted stage banter contrasted the introspection of his songs, but once the lights were dimmed for his cover of Hallelujah, the onstage aura became more reflective.

The question has often been asked if the world needs another version of the Leonard Cohen classic to which Lloyd masterfully delivered a response—an emphatic yes. Launching into the song with a soulful grit in his voice, he proceeded to sing the heck out of Cohen’s profound meditation on human vulnerability. It was tenacious, stirring, and completely bewitching. Lloyd then returned to Watching Angels Mend for the laid-back escapism of Bus Ride before throwing in another of that album’s inclusions—Amazing.

The song is not just one of Lloyd’s seminal musical moments but defined a generation of Australian music. One needed only to stand in the audience on Friday night to witness the level of the song’s resonance. After crooning through the opening verses, Lloyd pointed to the crowd. As Lloyd turned the chorus over to the audience, a 500-strong choir emotively filled the room. After reassuming vocals for the next sequence of verses, the audience again took control for what must be one of the most affecting experiences Fremantle’s old Artillery Drill Hall has witnessed in any of its musical incarnations.

To close out his set, Lloyd turned to a song he wrote in London but works better in Western Australia. In 2011, Lloyd collaborated with Alan and Stephen Pigram on the soundtrack to Brendan Fletcher’s breakout feature film, the Western Australia-set Mad Bastards. Slow Train was originally written and recorded for Lloyd’s 2008 album Good in the Face of a Stranger but was beautifully reinvented with the Pigram Brothers for the soundtrack. Serving as a poignant metaphor for second comings, the song was the perfect ending to Alex Lloyd’s performance.

While Lloyd provided an emotive travelogue through his career, the purpose of this gathering was to join Eskimo Joe’s journey through one specific album—Black Fingernails, Red Wine. There are two approaches to album-themed evenings: mixing up the order or playing through the songs in sequence. Tonight Eskimo Joe opted for the latter, opening its set with Comfort You. The band then found themselves knee-deep in two of the album’s seminal musical moments—New York and Black Fingernails, Red Wine.

That didn’t seem to faze the five-piece, with frontman Kav Temperley using a transition within the song to enthusiastically tell the crowd, “We’re Eskimo Joe from Fremantle, Western Australia.” Temperley admitted there was a degree of conjecture within the band about playing the album’s fêted title track so early in the set, but the band maintained its conviction and dived into the song. In launching into its driving yet brooding atmospherics, Temperley’s “Straight down” and “Downtown” lines in the chorus were answered by the audience chiming in with the responding “Oh wow oh”. Grinding guitars, synthesised keyboards, pounding toms, and flashing lights merged to generate an arresting ambience.

The evening also provided backstories to both the album and its compositions. With Joel Quartermain swapping out electric for acoustic guitar, Temperley explained that Breaking Up was the first song the band wrote for the album. As well as being exponents of finely crafted hook-laden songs, Eskimo Joe are also masters of the interlude, with Temperley dropping out of the mix on bass to accentuate the lyrical resonance through an array of hand gestures. For Setting Sun, Temperley handed over bass duties to Quartermain, leaving the frontman free to enlighten the audience into the song’s backstory.

The song was originally called Forever Young, but after Youth Group beat them to the nomenclature punch, Eskimo Joe renamed their composition Setting Sun. Temperley further explained that the song was the band’s first major soundtrack placement through its inclusion in a Hollywood production starring Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth. He also noted the film, The Last Song, was where the soon-to-be couple first met, pointing out the song effectively provided the soundtrack to the couple’s first kiss.

Written on a backstage piano in Airlie Beach, Queensland, London Bombs was emotively urged along by both Tim Nelson’s swirling electric piano and Temperley’s fragile vocal delivery. As Nelson’s keyboards then sprouted a wash of synthesiser and Stuart MacLeod scraped out some classic 1990s guitar sounds, the immaculately drilled ensemble crescendoed into full flight. With guitars and keyboards howling, drummer Paul Keenan kept Sarah beautifully rolling along. After Quartermain and MacLeod gave Temperley their rich vocal support on This Pressure, the three guitarists huddled around Keenan as the song was brought to a flurried conclusion.

Introducing Beating like a Drum, Temperley explained how the album was recorded in a Gosford, New South Wales, studio that was previously owned by INXS’s Gary Beers. He explained Eskimo Joe wanted to make an album the calibre of those made by bands that influenced them, like INXS and Icehouse. The brooding song fittingly proved one of the highlights of the evening. The instrumental Reprise provided a respite for Temperley’s vocals before Suicide Girl saw him return to the stage with an acoustic guitar for the tempered piano-driven ballad. The song was astutely rounded out with the band falling into silence, leaving Temperley’s lulled vocals and acoustic strums to linger.

The set was closed out with the album’s final track, How Does It Feel. With Temperley encouraging the crowd to place their arms around the shoulders of their neighbours, the audience swayed to the band’s contemporary waltz, injecting a moment of classic rock anthemia into the evening. After a brief interlude, the band returned to the stage, where Temperley asked if the audience was ready for some rock ‘n’ roll. Eskimo Joe then fervently launched into Foreign Land from their 2009 album, Inshalla.

Complete with guitar antics and synchronised jumps, the relentless guitar assault of the exotic rocker was followed by the band launching into its most recent release, 2024’s The First Time. The five-piece then ventured back to 2001 for the lead single off their debut studio album, Girl, which was the subject of heavy rotation on Triple J. After Temperley initiated a clap-along, MacLeod joined the vocals for a sultry rendition of Love Is a Drug before the band closed out the night with From the Sea.

Driven by pulsing guitars, Temperley’s diffident vocal delivery was underpinned by Quartermain and MacLeod’s gorgeous counter-chorus. A perfect slice of pristine pop, the song encapsulated everything that makes Eskimo Joe so appealing. It’s classic indie rock instrumentation and seductive multi-layered vocals perfectly brought to bear the band’s melodic sensibility. Throw in Nelson’s piercing electric piano, Keenan’s pounding drums, and the crowd’s complete and utter investment, the song provided the perfect ending to a faultless performance.

BRETT LEIGH DICKS

Photos by Linda Dunjey