Eskimo Joe

It was a cold winter’s night outside but inside The Corner Hotel in Richmond you wouldn’t have known it. The moment Eskimo Joe took to the stage everything else was forgotten except for the lyrics to the songs we were hearing. Something about singing along to songs that I hear live always gets me. It was a night of W.A music experience – billed as ‘The Best of the West’. With the promise of new material in the air. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a nice healthy mixture of 'ASIAC' and 'Girl' flowed nicely with the three new tracks we got to sample. 'Breaking Up' would be the first-time standout of the three - but further listens may uncover a grower.

Steve Parkin and the Foreign Films warmed up the crowd with an indie/rock set. The opening song created such a scene with Steve in the middle with his acoustic and the four other members two to a mic either side of him joining in the harmony. Perfect. I'd love to see more of this kind of thing. Three guitars, a bass and drums created a frenzy of 'bobbing' (-what you do when you appreciate the music but dont really know the band and want to show your respect) and will be getting a further listen from this reviewer. The single ‘vacuum man’ is good for a taste.

After a slight technical problem Eskimo Joe took to the stage about 10 minutes late (which on a Sunday was fine as it was only 9.40pm) to a deafening applause. When The Corner sells out and there is no space to move I think it adds to the atmosphere when you are up the front. Starting the set with the favourite 'Come Down', EJ didn’t take too long to get into rocker mode. Stu made sure he ended the night with 5 'rockstar jumps' under his belt and Kav took the role as the band commentator. Explaining the story of his and Stu's matching outfit, Kav told us why it was cool to wear black. Personally I like a bit of color myself, but it is hard to deny the power of the color of rock. 'Smoke' and 'From the Sea' are always favorites live and as usual they went off, complete with a little moshing. An unusual call to arms had the crowd waving mobile phones along to 'Liar' - apparently mobiles are the lighters of the 21st century, or so we were told.

For me, the highlight of the night was the little ditty 'I'm so tired’; this track always sounds so epic when performed live. It seems to get better each time I hear it. The last treat we received was a return from Steve Parkin for a duet with Kav on 'Car Crash'. When performing together I was surprised at how similar the voices sounded. Maybe this was just good harmony (the guys are good mates) but whatever it was it worked. All the live work they have been doing lately seemed to have payed off - the only downfall is how tired they looked – especially Stu. 6 weeks into the tour and we can understand why.

As soon as the final song was played a black curtain was pulled over the stage to cover it from view. No-one seemed sure why this happened and in the 5 times I had been there previously I had never seen it done, but I guess maybe the roadies wanted some privacy to clear the stage. As I left I contemplated something Kav had said earlier "These are songs that we really believe in and we wanted to play them tonight"- to me the band seemed less concerned with what the crowd wanted and more concerned about themselves. I guess when you are Eskimo Joe that is acceptable. Still, I can’t deny the quality of the music.

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