Augie March

Augie March
The Forum
August 29, 2009

By all accounts, Glenn Richards is the antithesis of your average rock star. Literary, introverted and reluctant to perform, he’s notorious for being gruff when it comes to taking to the stage. Suffice to say, I went to Augie March’s final concert with low expectations. When a band’s lead singer admits that he actually finds it hard to generate emotion on stage and doesn’t really like performing, it tends to create an impression. Essentially, you’d be better off sitting at home in the comfort of your lounge room with the boys from Shepparton on rotation than in the crowded bowels of the Forum for the band’s last hurrah.

Luckily, I was wrong. For all his posturing, Richards can turn it on for the crowd when he has to. It was about five songs or so into the line-up – during a rendition of Vineyard – when the band really found its legs (with a little help from a brass section trio). It’s partly the nature of the song itself, but there was a palpable lift in energy from that point that helped carry the rest of the show.

Despite some much-publicised self-criticism regarding the band’s latest album, Watch Me Disappear, several songs (particularly The Slant) were among the best received. Old favourite This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers, from the Strange Bird album, was a crowd pleaser, while the poignant There is no such place from Sunset Studies showcased Richards’ extraordinary songwriting and vocal skills and was easily the most emotional point in the evening.

While at times the performance felt laboured – the last show of a long and arduous tour – it had moments of verve and tight musicianship. Richards’ call out to the ‘Augie March family’ towards the end of the show was an unexpected and touching nod to the band’s loyal grassroots base.

That aside, there was little else to suggest this was the band’s final gig for now, and possibly forever. Richards cracked a joke about Wimbledon and saving your best set for last, while bass guitarist Edmondo Ammendola lightened the mood at one point by donning a pair of oversized white Y-fronts over his jeans.

Capping things off with a nod to tradition (and commercial exposure), the band finished with its rollicking anthem One Crowded Hour. One gets the impression that Richards isn’t too sorry to be leaving that particular piece of Augie history behind. I think it’s a different story for the fans.

Michael Franti

To go to a Michael Franti gig is to get a big serve of happy. And how. But what I really like is that it’s a different dish each time. Last week’s acoustic session at the Prince Bandroom was a downsized version of other Franti line-ups I’ve seen – bass player Carl Young was the only band member flying the Spearhead flag – but what was lacking in number was more than made up for in the sheer energy of lead guitarist, Jake. Like an eager to please puppy, he was exhuberance personified and was clearly making the most of the spotlight. With a shaggy mop and cheeky grin, this Gen Y talent would fit right in on most reality TV music shows, but that’s not to undersell his ability – he rocked it out all night.

Entering under cover of darkness to the Marley classic ‘I Shot the Sheriff’, the trio got down to business with energetic renditions of ‘Pray For Grace’, ‘Hey World’ (Remote Control Version) and ‘Yes I Will’, before easing down a notch with ‘East To The West’. The tribal ‘Yell Fire’ brought the crowd to its feet, as did old favourite ‘Sometimes’ (a nod to the Stay Human days), but the acoustic setting meant that ballads like the peace-broking ‘Never Too Late’ were the real standouts.

No Franti show would be complete without a jam session, and this one didn’t disappoint. Support act Ashleigh Mannix came onstage for a touching duet of ‘Walk and Don’t Look Back’, providing an understated but sweet vocal counterpoint to the main man. But the highlight for the crowd seemed to be the other ring-in performer – a beatboxing, Drew Carey-lookalike who joined in a lengthy version of ‘The Sound of Sunshine’. I love the charade – so much a part of Franti shows – that these people are just randoms in the crowd and, as a long-time fan, there’s a part of me that secretly hopes it could one day be me.

The Greyhound bus-inspired ‘I Got Love For You’ – an ode to Franti’s teenage son – got hands waving and provided a tender moment, as did a cover of the INXS anthem ‘Don’t Change’. Other miscellaneous highlights, in no particular order: the funfest ‘Everyone Deserves Music’; a thumping bass solo from Young; spontaneous fingernail filing from Franti (upping the quirk factor); a mellow reworking of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’; and Franti’s tribute song to President Obama, which gave some idea of what it must have been like in the heady days of last year’s campaign. Topped off with an encore of ‘Say Hey I Love You’.

All in all, a super-fun, feel-good love-in, like all good Franti gigs are. And should Michael ever decide to put his bare feet up for a while, he’s got a thoroughly keen heir in the making.