Wagons

This was the final show in Wagons’ long stint on the road to support the release of their fourth studio album, The Rise and Fall of Goodtown. After this show, charismatic lead singer, Henry Wagons, informed us that they intend to have a well-earned rest before heading back into the studio. Though Those Darlins were unable to go along for the ride as initially planned (Nikki Darlin from the trio recently broke her arm), Wagons intended to enjoy their time at the Corner Hotel by having “a fucking awesome time”. A solid plan.

Earlier in the evening Super Wild Horses opened before the Beards jumped on stage. This was my first live experience of the South Australian four piece, though I had been told to expect an entertaining set. My instinct was that a band called the Beards, in which all members had beards and sang all their songs about beards would be a little…um….gimmicky? ‘Well no shit knucklehead’, you might say, (fair enough too- and nice use of ‘knucklehead’...an underutilised term). The entertainment factor was definitely there in spades, with front man Johann Beardraven having a bit of the Jack Blacks about him. They made a call to arms early in their set asking for everyone to cease shaving to help make Australia “the great bearded nation it once was”. If you look back to the colonial days, we really were at the forefront of facial hair.

Funny track titles such as ‘It Only Takes a Fortnight to Grow a Decent Beard’ and ‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have a Beard, You Have Two Mums’, turned out to be backed up by solid tunes. Shouldn’t be surprising I suppose, hair has been on the face of rock since the beginning. This was well illustrated on the night, with clean-shaven men thin on the ground, and on the chin… boom-tish (note: edit in better joke later), which is not rare for the Corner. The bearded majority were encouraged to head to the front of stage and to “elbow the beardless out of the way”. Unfortunately I was freshly shaved from the day before. I felt ashamed. Another thing that didn’t sit well with me during their set was that drummer, John Beardman, was clearly sporting a false beard. It just didn’t seem right. I felt the whole crowd was uneasy about this spurious growth. This was until he dramatically removed his hat and fake beard to signal the end of their set- only to reveal a very real and luscious beard hiding beneath- faith was restored. They ended their enjoyable set by thanking Wagons for having them, “or at least the bearded one”.

The bearded one was front man Henry Wagons, and as I was contemplating giving my own face a razor holiday, Wagons wandered onto the stage. They eased into the set with ‘the Gambler’ before forging on into one of their many crowd favourites, ‘Love Me Like I Love You’, in which it is pondered: “Why do they talk about the birds and the bees, when one is in the flowers and one is in the trees?” Fuck I love that line, as those unfortunate enough to be standing around me would have found. I am a bit of a latecomer when it comes to Wagons, through this set though, I feel I have become one of their many dedicated fans. How could I not when the ingredients are the vocals of what Nick Cave and Johnny Cash’s love child would sound like (fact) and music ranging from feel good country to dark rolling rock and poignant ballads- a pretty sweet music meal, friends.

Set highlights included recent hits ‘Drive All Night’, ‘Goodtown’ and Wagons’ favourite “fat Elvis” era tune, ‘Never Been to Spain’. The most memorable moment of the night though was another cover, Wayfaring Strangers’ song ‘Willie Nelson’. This tune is just made for singing along to, and that is exactly what we were encouraged to do. After thanking the support acts, Wagons rallied the crowd “We’ve done nothing but give all night, now it’s time for you to give some back”. He wanted us to sing the chorus with him, a chorus of two words, “It’s not about pitch, or even singing any more. Scream it!!” And we did, ‘Willie….Willie….Willlllieeee…..Willie Nelson!’ It was one of those great gig moments- the packed out Corner Hotel squealed as one.

I left excited about the promise of their soon to be recorded fifth studio album. Pressure’s on as the expectations are high, but after this gig I am confident. A fucking awesome time was had, as promised.

Matt Stewart

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