Tim Rogers

The thing I like about Tim Rogers is no matter how wasted he gets, what sort of mood he’s in or what kind of show he’s doing he always looks damn good. Looking kinda like a well-dressed cowboy out of the Bold and the Beautiful, in a good way; he has a white shirt on and the most authentic looking white cowboy hat ever. Though it did seem a little like it was brand new hat made to look old and worn, kinda like those worn in style jeans, but much much cooler. Though it doesn’t matter. Like I said he could walk onstage wearing a potato sack and make it look good. Tonight should be a good show, he seems in good spirits and things seem to be going alright in his life according to the tabloids. That doesn’t mean I know what kind of show we’ll get. That’s the thing with Tim Rogers, you could watch every show in the same tour and get 20 completely different styles, sets and faces of Tim. He could get all moody and play songs that never see the light of the stage and get all introspective or he can do a hits and favourites show willingly or not or give you anything in between.

Tonight’s show implies him and a guitar as suggested in the poster “Tim Rogers - Stag” however as he walks on it seems he brought the band with him tonight. Whatever! He’s Tim Rogers; he can do whatever the f#@k he wants. Did I mention he looks damn good?

He opens up the night slowly easing us into the night. Along with the band he has brought a cello player which adds a nice touch to the softer songs. Some of those songs had strings on the records but are not often heard live. It’s good to hear them in a more complete form here.

He plays a nice mix of You Am I softer favourites and his own solo hits. Stuff most people have heard and nothing too obscure. He generally seems very happy onstage and to be having a good time. He plays the You Am I hits Heavy Heart and asks the audience “Can someone famous please cover this and make me millions?” Obviously he’s a little sore for being clearly the best Australian songwriter, influenced and helped out everyone from The Vines to Powderfinger, is a multi Aria award winner, only plays sold out shows and yet to the vast majority of Australia is less recognized and makes less money than Shannon Noll. I’d be pretty pissed too. “I’ll cover it for you Tim!” I wanted to shout. But alas it won’t help. I’m not famous.

Tim Rogers is such an emotional guy you really just want to give him a hug sometimes. He goes from joking around, to angry, to reflective and sad so quickly that you want to cry. He introduces that unbelievable good song James The Second he tells us the most heart wrenching story about him and his brother starting the band years ago and that no matter what it’s still his band. You truly get the feeling that he just misses his bro and it’s quite overwhelming. “Let’s get this to lift the roof off and reach you in London.” I had tears in my eyes.

Clearly Tim’s best asset as a performer is his ability to communicate with the audience. Whether it’s through song or talking about the songs or talking about life in general you always feel like he’s talking just to you and he is so engaging that you lose all track of time and are so mesmerised by him during the songs you hardly look at the rest of the band. So much so that the 50 minute odd set seemed to go by in less than 15.

After picking up the pace a bit he introduces the band mentioning that he has been touring most shows with just him and the cello but wanted to get the rest of the band out for us cause in his opinion, “..In terms of music in Australia the buck stops in Melbourne.” Yeah! Damn straight it does! We all cheer back. He then goes back to joking Tim, “I’m going to play some more rock n roll tunes. I hear it is still a popular genre.” Hmm maybe not so joking and still a little bitter again. He rips into the hits from his solo album of 2004 Spit Polish rocking out with Fiction and Stray Dog Bruise Then some from his latest Luxury in Hysteria album, ‘Goodnight boys’ into the big one When Yer Sad. Damn that’s a good song and it really goes off.

He returns to the stage for an encore accompanied only by the cello and playing one the best You Am I ballads on one of the most underrated albums Deliverance.When You Know What You Want speaks of a man who seems to have just woken up realising the meaning of life and he’s got it in his hands. Obviously written during happy times in his life it’s as beautiful as it is uplifting. Magic. The band then returns to do 2 covers. Davy Lane of Pictures and You Am I fame comes onstage too, dressed in his best 60’s style suit on acoustic guitar for the best rendition of John Lennon’s Instant Karma I’ve ever heard. Helping out on vocal duties too it’s so good I don’t know what could top it. Then Tim pulls out The MC5’s Kick out the Jams. WTF!!! The band went into rock overdrive as Tim pulled out those famed windmills. It was great. It then went into a weird psychedelic break down near the end before coming back to 11 again in the end. It was a fantastic gig. You got some favourites, some touching moments, happy moments, journeys, rock n roll fun, newies, oldies and in the end further convinced as to why his shows sell out all the time. He is the one and only Tim Rogers. God Damn!

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