Review: Red Hot Summer Tour at Whitfords Nodes Park
Red Hot Summer Tour at Whitfords Nodes Park
w/ Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, The Cruel Sea, The Cat Empire, Kasey Chambers, Jess Hitchcock
Saturday, May 9, 2026
The latest iteration of the Red Hot Summer tour arrived in Perth several weeks beyond its namesake season, yet this outdoor concert series landed on a gloriously sunny autumnal day that the Fremantle Doctor declined to visit, even as close to the ocean as the venue was. The lack of wind through the afternoon and into the evening upgraded the already great conditions for live music to near perfect.
First act Jess Hitchcock, talented across multiple music genres and frequent collaborator with Paul Kelly, advised from the top as she took the early afternoon slot that she loved being back on Noongar country again. Bright and peppy, yet with a dash of grit and a definite Aussie twang, Hitchcock brought several country-tinged originals to the audience, the highlight of these perhaps being Running in the Dark. Hitchcock advised this had been written after she watched every A Star is Born in a row, a creative exercise she would not recommend to others, yet that journey and finalised song as its outcome were decidedly worth it.
Her set rounded out with two delightful covers—one each of Blondie and Sheryl Crow—and Hitchcock departed the stage with far more fans in the crowd than she had arrived with. Possessed of a voice that soared powerfully whenever called upon and an audibly strong repertoire to work with, the fact that Hitchcock started the afternoon was merely a consequence of the absolutely stacked talents that lay ahead rather than any other consideration.
Kasey Chambers launched into her performance directly; the unique and unmistakable lilt in her voice all the introduction she likely needed. The second song, Not Pretty Enough, was the first moment of the day where the audience spontaneously sparked, finding their voice and next level of energy, after which Chambers began chatting amiably to the crowd as if to her closest friends.
After a delightful rendition of evergreen classic Pony, Chambers effusively thanked her father Bill, on stage as part of the band, but warned the fans not to give him too much praise; otherwise, she may have to start paying him for the first time in her career. As she introduced Rattlin’ Bones, co-written with her at-the-time husband, Chambers warmly joked she collaborated with her ex even now, though their primary topic of recent times was generally divorce.
The care, love, and emotion in all of Chambers’ original songs were still eminently evident, but the high point of her set today would surprisingly go to a cover from as left-field an origin as one could possibly think of. Lose Yourself by Eminem is a powerhouse anthem already, but Chambers genuinely astounded with her interpretation, starting it as a slow solo banjo piece, then gradually escalating with her band to an eventual wall of sound with head-banging rock intensity, with some portions very nearly grunge.
As the track expanded through to an eight-minute epic, all but crashing down around her ears, Chambers physically threw herself into the work, coming out the other side visibly drained, potentially exhausted, and leaving the crowd most definitely sated.
Next up, The Cat Empire brought a near-enough complete change of atmosphere to the afternoon, with big band trumpets, ska overtones, and many, many Latin beats. The standing area in front of the stage packed out almost immediately, with excited shrieks from the fans for each beloved tune, whilst the myriad of children on parental shoulders gave the appearance, if not the reality, of an all-ages show.
Sly was a stand-out track midway through the set, full of blues-funk fusion and extended solos between keyboard and drums that continually one-upped each other as the rest of the band took a breather. In the audience, bucket hats, fedoras, and flat caps battled for dominance in the headwear department as lead singer Felix Riebl shared the story of teenagers at a Melbourne house party, of the band literally before it was a band, leading to The Empire’s breakout hit, Hello —the crowd ecstatically shouting the chorus back to the stage as they went.
With additional flavours of reggaeton and even rap liberally added to the mix, The Cat Empire’s performance was a glorious amount of fun, full of hypnotic beats, rattling keys, and horns galore that effortlessly seduced the listener and kept them in that moment until the most satisfying crescendos, time and again.
Dusk approached, and Venus unhurriedly fell towards the horizon as another constellation of musical stars rose from the stage to meet her. It was time for The Cruel Sea, who began their performance with the dreamlike underwater stylings of Shadder, this hazy instrumental piece now thirty-five years old itself.
There may now be silver in their hair and beards, but Tex Perkins and crew still exude the word ‘swagger’ in all its forms, primarily as a delicious, decadent, and dynamic taste of dangers ahead. Tonight’s rendition of Delivery Man proved this in spades, with vocals and music that grabbed the audience by their delicates and refused to let go, whilst the very next song, Better Get a Lawyer, simply took an even firmer grip.
Despite the vintage of the material, every track still held an immediacy that hit the sternum like a bullet, loaded with such musical strength and intent to render any possible objections moot. The Honeymoon is Over, Black Stick, and This is Not the Way Home were all superb at the back end of the set, Perkins’ vocals mysteriously being both the roughest of gravel and smoothest of butter, an odd combination that shouldn’t work, yet remained absolutely comforting in its mere existence.
Night had truly fallen by the time Missy Higgins arrived, the evening cool and calm as another of Australia’s musical treasures came to the fore. With her entire performance played as a heartfelt love letter to Western Australia, in particular Cable Beach and Broome, where large pieces of her soul self-reportedly are held, Higgins very appropriately opened her set with Going North.
Higgins at first cursed her tumultuous relationships but in the very next breath admitted that was where she had gotten most of her best material from, so all in all, she couldn’t complain too much. Craters from newest album, The Second Act, was a delight played live, an upbeat clap-along ditty with storytelling far less perky than the tune, a decidedly mature-aged tale akin to combining rolled eyes with a resigned, self-mocking grin.
Higgins had earlier asked if anyone knew her first album and was greeted with the loudest roar of her time on stage—as she progressed across Ten Days, The Special Two, and Scar through the course of her set, her bigger hits sounded as fresh and emotionally raw as they did in 2004 and very obviously still resonated with audience members of all ages.
The crowd floated along with Higgins in a bubble of melancholic, bittersweet memory, followed almost equally by a shared catharsis experienced between the artist and her fans. In her wider catalogue there are indeed many “happier” songs, but even those seem often acknowledged or framed with a knowing glance towards the heartache.
Another half-hour break between artists ensued as the road crew reset the stage, giving the crowd another opportunity to grab refreshments or merch, and the sold-out venue buzzed with anticipation for the last performer of the night.
Paul Kelly acknowledged the land he was on and the fact that stories had been told here for thousands of years, and if the audience wouldn’t mind, he would bring some stories forward himself. Beginning strongly with Houndstooth Dress and Rita Wrote a Letter, the former an insistent piano drill, the latter relaxed and almost doo-wop, Kelly brought these tracks from his two most recent albums, released over the last eighteen months.
If The Cruel Sea earlier in the day had been smooth butter, Kelly could be compared to fine wine, aged near perfectly. With lyrics that are as much poetry or literature as they are songs, he continues into his seventies as one of this nation’s premier storytellers, both with his classics and his more recent work.
Travelling across From St Kilda to Kings Cross through To Her Door, it was as if Kelly injected suburban Australia of the eighties or nineties directly into the audience’s veins. An electric shock of recognition, even when the recipient of such a vision may have wished to deny or minimise its truth. There may have been other songs the country told itself at the time it preferred, but Kelly was often the artist who hit closest to the mark.
With a career that has lasted decades, multiple generations of fans could enjoy Kelly’s art, whether slow dancing on the hill or taking selfies with the band behind, bonding in this golden moment with friends, families, or lovers. Multiple generations also appeared on stage by Kelly’s side, including nephew Dan, both in the band and as co-writer, as Kasey Chambers joined for one song, whilst Jess Hitchcock attended for several.
Happy Birthday, Ada Mae transported the listener to the future, as Kelly sang of his toddler granddaughter and her potential life ahead, gently brushing against thoughts of his own mortality. Dumb Things likely received the most energetic singalong from the audience of the set, whilst How To Make Gravy was let out of its Christmas wrapping, enthusing much of Gen Z in attendance, many of whom had called for it constantly the rest of the day.
The main performance ended on From Little Things (Big Things Grow), and this still all-too-relevant call for reconciliation floated across the crisp, still air of the northern suburbs like the politest haunting. Concluding a glorious evening in the presence of greatness, the chorus repeated over and again, with no one, either on stage or off, wishing it to end.
Red Hot Summer delivered everything it promised on the box today. A legendary lineup that delighted the packed audience, every artist scratched a slightly different itch the fans brought forward, and each contributed their own distinctive energies to proceedings. Paul Kelly, due to his influence and longevity, almost the David Attenborough of the current Australian music scene, was the absolute worthiest final boss tonight.
PAUL MEEK
Photos by Linda Dunjey
