Hoodoo Gurus

As I stand surrounded by 30 something year old men waiting for the Hoodoo Gurus (Dave Faulkner on vocals, guitarist Brad Shepherd, bassist Rick Grossman and drummer Mark Kingsmill) to grace me with their presence, I ask myself – “Am I out of place? I’m 23 years old and I’m not married. I don’t even have any kids and I can’t cook!”

I think again, of course I’m not. The Gurus, decades after releasing iconic records such as Mars Needs Guitars! and Stoneage Romeos show that they still have the ability to please punters of all ages across the large landscape that is Australia.

The sold out Hi-Fi bar in Melbourne makes the gig a bit of a squeeze, especially between toilet and bar breaks. Nevertheless, why wouldn’t a band loaded with Aussie anthems pack a venue with relative ease?

Getting back on the wagon in late 2003, the Hoodoo Gurus tour off the release of their second studio album since their 1998 break up, Purity of Essence (the band’s ninth album in total). The gig goers ponder the break up as Faulkner asks, “Why did we ever break up?”

Opening the night were the Gun Street Girls led by Dave Larkin of Dallas Crane who entrance the audience with their brand of polished rock. The space cowboys that make up The Break are next to hit the stage.

Three of the Midnight Oils members (Rob Hirst drums, Martin Rotsey guitar, Jim Moginie guitar and stylophone) and one from the Violent Femmes (Brian Ritchie bass) hack at high walls, squeeze into tight barrels and gracefully surf the night away performing music that sounded similar to a mischievous gremlin caught on the dark side of the Morning of the Earth. With song names derived from Australian surf spots such as ‘Winkipop’ and ‘Cyclops’, I wonder, does the music correlate to how it actually feels surfing that break?

Faulkner, his leather shirt and the guys emerge onstage to the audience’s delight, ripping into a few tracks off the new record. Performing their new single 'Crankin’ Up', it seems as if they have been playing the song to crowds for years not months, with the punters lapping it up as the Gurus go back to their roots.

Meanwhile, inside the Hi-Fi bar men’s toilets discussions about the new album take place, “Have you got the new album man? It’s pretty good. Don’t you have a spare 20 bucks to give to the Gurus?” The crowd is one, dedicated to the band and passionate about the music they play.

The 80s classics, ‘Death Defying’, ‘What’s My Scene’ and ‘Bittersweet’, with their catchy hooks and underlying themes of sexuality continue to resonate with the Melbourne folk causing them to get ants in their pants as they did decades before. ‘Miss Freelove 69’ even though a great tune was one of their weaker preformed songs, with Dave Faulkner not quite hitting the high notes that are needed to launch ‘Miss Freelove’ into full flight.

Faulkner takes the solo route for the group’s 1983 haunting heart breaker, ‘My Girl’ (in this case a defiant greyhound), creating an intimate environment for the song allowing the audience to belt out the chorus over his guitar.

To close, the Hoodoo Gurus pull out the best song to use for an Australia’s Funniest Home Video, ‘Like Wow Wipeout’. The drumbeats make for epic edit points in a montage of clips with people hurting themselves. However there was nobody hurting themselves at the Hi-Fi bar, just people damaging their dignity dancing like Elaine Benes from Seinfeld.

The Gurus of Aussie rock, prove that they aren’t quite ready for the RSL circuit yet and demonstrate they still have edgy and crowd-pleasing material in the tank. With awesome support from the Gun Street Girls and The Break, the night kicked some arse, broke some hearts and proved to be a great advertisement for Aussie music.

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