Ed Kuepper

You know you are in for a good time when Ed Kuepper hits town. This man probably has the most diverse and complete back catalogue in Australian music and there is so much good music for him to chose from.
His gig at the Republic kicked off a run of dates to support the recent release of the three disc retrospective, Magic Mile, which covers his prolific period between 1986 and 2004. Magic Mile fills in the missing link after earlier releases covered off the vaunted Saints (the four disc set, All Times Through Paradise) and Kuepper’s post-Saints effort, the Laughing Clowns (the three disc set, Cruel But Fair).
Starting the night were the Bad Luck Charms, who are one of the better local bands to emerge in the last year. While they went over reasonably well with the punters, and a few people recognised the songs as they were called out, the band actually played much better than that.
Their song ‘War on Mediocrity’ was impressive, as was ‘What Could Have Been’. The almost ubiquitous ‘Chigwell Is Burning’ came over well and kept the crowd interested.
But it was ultimately Ed Kuepper’s crowd and as soon as he got on stage everyone was drawn to him.
I don’t know why, but I was expecting Ed to look a lot younger. Perhaps it was too much time spent watching crusty DVD bootleg vision of him back in his early Saints era. While the years showed, he moved, played and sang like a young man. Wielding a beaten up Sunburst Stratocaster and joined by Peter Oxley on bass (ex-Sunny Boys) and Jeff Wegener on drums (ex-Saints and Laughing Clowns), he ripped into ‘La Di Do’, ‘Electrical Storm’ and a nice adaptation of ‘The Way You Made Me Feel’. It was not as stripped back and mellow as the studio version, nor was it bursting through the speakers like a Saints song. In fact, the whole set had a vibe that was more like the Laughing Clowns.
From here Kuepper went back to one of the high points of his solo career and pulled out a brilliant version of ‘Honey Steel’s Gold’, the title track from his excellent 1992 album.
Kuepper then went even further back and gave the eager crowd a stellar version of ‘Messin’ With The Kid’ from the first Saints album, (I’m) Stranded.
A medium sized crowd was by that time well and truly warmed up and appreciated ‘Sam Hall’, ‘Little Fiddle’ and the set closer ‘Eternally Yours’.
After a quick break, the band returned for an encore of ‘Everything I’ve Got’. While the show was not a complete sell-out, there were enough people there to show that Ed Kuepper is still as relevant as he ever was, and while the set was more of a retrospective, it showed that the man has plenty of enthusiasm for his music and will hopefully return to his prolific ways with a new album soon.

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