Bob Evans

Oxford Art Factory became the meeting place for teenies, randoms and scenesters on Saturday night for the Bob Evans gig. Or it could have just been an apathetic, musically challenged audience of Sydneysiders.

The support, Perth songstress, Felicity Groom, tried her best while armed with an acoustic guitar to present her deep and meaningful folk songs (that admittedly sound extremely similar,) but was instead met with a maximum of four people clapping while the other assembled punters continued to drink and be merry with their mates.

She played Low and John Edmond Shea and for a few songs swapped the guitar for some solo Autoharp, singing with her Missy Higgins-like voice. She gave some background information for a number of the songs but the hour-long set seemed to drag. However, one punter did yell out “one more” at the conclusion of her set, but this may have been his way of asking his friend for another drink.

It was time for a dapper Bob Evans, suited up and with a glowing acoustic guitar complete with coloured fairy lights to take to the stage. Festive silliness was one aspect of the show but at times Evans appeared to be going through the motions as he performed songs from his upcoming record, Goodnight Bull Creek! and his acclaimed sophomore album, Suburban Songbook.

Joined by the multi-talented Malcolm Clark (ex-Sleepy Jackson) on backing vocals, keyboards and kick pedal drums, they enthused the crowd with tracks: Flame, Sadness & Whiskey, Darlin’ Won’t You Come? and Friend. The latter was a different version to the original- a big ol’ sweet ballad and a great surprise of the night.

Evans also had some special guests join him for a couple of songs- Simon Day (Ratcat) for an anthemic Nowhere Without You; support act, Felicity Groom for a new song; and Josh Pyke for some duel acoustic guitar finery on Don’t You Think It’s Time?

Newer tracks included Hand Me Down, When You Love Someone So Much It Hurts and Power of Speech, which all sounded really promising and varied. The same cannot be said for the painful version of Turn which the crowd witnessed. While it is an excellent song from Evans’ cult-favourite debut record, Suburban Kid, tonight it floundered. Evans got an audience member named Julian up onstage to sing lyrics and perform the harmonica solo. This went down like a lead balloon (although there were cheers and merriment in the crowd who tried to help press things along) as the “young man” didn’t know all the lyrics and was a little overzealous on the harmonica.

In all, it was a good offering of what to expect on the much-awaited third album, presented in a quirky way. At times it felt like controlled chaos and at other times it was merely delivered as stripped back, plain old gorgeous folk-pop songs where the combination of new and old material served to prove what an underrated songwriter Messer Evans really is to those assembled.

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