Review: Grinspoon at Amplifier Bar
Grinspoon at Amplifier Bar
w/ Press Club
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Aussie icons Grinspoon were in Perth last week to play three shows on their massive 44-date Whatever, Whenever, Wherever tour. From being the inaugural JJJ Unearthed winners to regularly tearing up the stage at Big Day Out, the Lismore rockers are known to play some of the biggest and best venues in Australia. Last Thursday the band dialled it down to treat fans to a small club show at Amplifier to promote their first album in 12 years, Whatever, Whatever.
In recent years it seems customary for Grinspoon to find exciting support acts to drag around the country, sharing the stage and their wisdom. Press Club are no exception and certainly had some new fans by the time their set wrapped up.
Launching straight into it, Press Club kicked off with Eugene, the opening track to 2022’s Endless Motion, before powering through a set that touched on all of their major releases. Showcasing their unique flavour of alt rock/punk, they had a crowd of elder millennials bopping along by the time vocalist Natalie Foster exhausted the stage and made her way into the crowd to close out Separate Houses three tracks in.
Phil Jamieson then surprised the crowd with an early appearance, joining Press Club on stage mid-set to play acoustic guitar on Untitled Wildlife. The Grinspoon frontman’s appearance didn’t seem to distract the crowd too much from the music, and Press Club’s driving guitar and melodies were still the star of the show. The band then touched on some new material with Wasted Days, which is due for release roughly a week after the show, before closing out with fan favourites Cancelled and Suburbia.
By the time Grinspoon‘s set was about to start, the 400-odd person crowd was packed in tightly, excited to witness a band of their calibre on a stage like the one at Amplifier. It’s not often Perth fans are treated to a night like this, and Grinspoon did not disappoint.
As Grinspoon hit the stage, Phil burst out of the gates with the charisma fans have come to expect from him, unbothered by the restricted space the stage at Amplifier has on offer. Kris, Joe and Pat also relished the opportunity and together delivered a set as tight as anyone would expect from 30-year veterans of Australian music.
Opening with Unknown Pretenders and then taking us right back to 1997 with DCx3, the crowd knew they were in for a good time. Grinspoon belted out tracks from Guide To Better Living, Thrills, Kills and Sunday Pills and all the major records in between.
Returning the favour, Phil then invited Press Club’s Natalie Foster back out on stage to sing Ali Barter’s vocals on Underground. The mix here got a little heavy on the vox at points but still provided a nice moment where you could see how much Grinspoon respects Press Club and why they were asked to join the tour.
Into the home stretch, the band teased the crowd with a medley of intros to tracks like Sickfest, Railrider, and crowd request Freezer, before settling on More Than You Are to close out the night. The mosh pit had been simmering away to this point, but here it really boiled over. Just as the song demands, no one in the venue was still.
This gig was definitely geared to fans of the older, heavier stuff played in drop D. It showed that Grinspoon’s new material fits right in with the stuff that a lot of fans remember them for, and that Press Club were a good, fun choice of support for the tour. It also showed that no matter how big a band is, a small club show like this will bring out the fans.
JEREMY PITTARD
Photos by Karen Lowe