17/08/2020
Great Review of gig by Andrew Thompson from “Around the Sound”
The Southern River Band brought their own brand of magical realism to The Naval Store on Saturday night with their biggest show yet since Mark McGowan told us all to stay home earlier this year.
It felt so naughty we half expected to be greeted by the riot police outside the venue after the show.
Given the circumstances, this was never going to be an ordinary night of rock and roll, and from the moment the opening notes of Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ tripped out over the PA, the feeling in the room instantly shifted from relaxed to high alert, as backs straightened, heads turned and the crowd of 400 boogie-hungry punters tightened up around the stage. It wasn’t so much that we forgot about social distancing, it was just that we’d found something more important to immerse ourselves in, at least for a while. Southern River Band were back, baby! And, wowsers, were we excited!
Turns out the band were, too, because what came next was 90 minutes of classic Southern River Band live entertainment. With this mob, it’s more than just a live music show, it’s something more akin to a three ringed circus, with front man, Callum Kramer, taking on the role of ringmaster and the band as a whole giving us everything from the tragi-comedy of the clowns to the ferocity of the wild animals, prowling the stage daring us to put our heads in their mouths.
Kramer is the most off the hook, unrestrained front man going around at the moment, certainly in Perth, probably in Australia, most likely, f**k it, we’ll say it, anywhere in the world.
As Kramer said at the end of Southern River Band’s closer, ‘One Of These Nights (I’ll Be Gone)’, “Who knows when the next one’s going to be?” That made the mass sing along of I won’t be around / I won’t be around much longer, all the more poignant.
You’ve got to live life while it’s there for the living.
