Having only seen Eskimo Joe live on a festival bill and never at a headlining gig, I was intrigued to see how they would hold up on their own at the only London date on their most recent UK tour.
The sold out Electric Ballroom was literally bulging at the seams with excitable fans, when the three Australian lads file onstage (plus Lee Jones on keys and Shaun Sibbes on drums) and begin with the single ‘Sarah’ from third album Black Fingernails Red Wine. From the first note, the crowd pick the song and begin to bust it out along with lead singer Kav Temperley.
‘Sarah’ is the perfect track to begin with – obviously familiar to many and powerful with its driving beat. Temperley lets the crowd take over in the breakdown, where everyone can be heard “Emergency/I think I am falling apart/Emergency/I think I am losing the fight”.
Moving to mainly instrumental track, and the opener of Black Fingernails Red Wine ‘Comfort You’, and then onto strong single ‘New York’ (check out the video for this track below, awesome!), the trio are tighter than Temperley’s black pants and win the crowd over with their relaxed stage presence.
After the three great opening tracks, Temperley greets the crowd and thanks everyone for coming down. He has a laid back, casual air about him, in contrast to his more church suitable outfit. In fact, all the boys are dressed particularly well - favouring the shirt/waist-coat combo rather than a t-shirt and jeans.
Next up, also from BFRW is ‘Setting Sun’, which gives Lee a chance to shine on the keys. This track has a giant stadium feel to it, as Eskimo Joe really let loose and have fun with this one – jumping around the stage, sharing each others mics and guitarist Joel Quartermain tearing up the riff.
Obviously onto a winner with order, they follow the album and continue with a little track called ‘London Bombs’.
Temperley gives an introduction by saying that despite its title, the song was written in Fremantle, Australia, which the abundance of Australians in the audience relish. The ambience of the song is completed by perfectly orchestrated lighting and brings real emotion to the lyrics.
To amp the crowd up again, Eskimo Joe then treat us to ‘Beating like a drum’ entering with the haunting vocals and a tribal sounding beat.
Starting to get a little suspicious as to why we haven’t heard anything from the imminent album release from Eskimo Joe, they answer my curiosities by confirming that they have only just finished their new album three days ago. And in a cheeky piece of entrapment, they mention their scheduled tour in April next year to promote the new album, and for us all to return then to hear the new stuff.
Title track from their second album A Song is a City follows, which is obviously a crowd favourite again. It has a rock star quality to it, being more raw and flippant than their more recent works.
Eskimo Joe then jam a little around ‘This is Pressure’. I’m impressed at how comfortable the boys are performing together, with their idiosyncrasies highlighted as they move around the stage mirroring each other and feeding off the excitement.
Temperley introduces the next tune ‘I’m So Tired’ from A Song is a City by mentioning that the track wasn’t originally included in their set list, but after it went down so well the first time they played it – it kind of stuck around. This is my favourite track from ASIAC, and seeing them play it live was incredible. Rather than the abrupt album version finish, they lengthen the jam at the end of the tune, where Quartermain helps out on drums to make the sound even more powerful. Bassist Stu McLeod can be seen leaping doing mid air splits in his excitement.
Fourth single from Black Fingernails Red Wine ‘Breaking Up’ is followed by bluesy ‘Car Crash’, commercially pop sounding ‘Older Than You’ and vocally impressive ‘Smoke’, all from ASIAC, with the crowd singing and dancing along.
‘Black Fingernails Red Wine’ completes the boys set list prior to their pre-encore exit.
Now this, I will admit, is one of the best encores I have seen from a band in a while. First are the introductions of each member, followed by a short solo each.
Then, Temperley discards his guitar and the restrictions it imposed and really goes for gold with stunning track ‘Life is Better With You’. This track takes a turn for the phenomenal when they merge in the Crowded House track ‘Weather with You’ which the crowd takes over again on vocals.
After Eskimo Joe say a very rock star and heartfelt goodbye of “Ah well, time to say goodbye, there’s a lot of alcohol to be drunk”, they finish with tracks ‘How Does it Feel?” and “From The Sea”.
This was quite a tough one to call for me. I’m a huge Eskimo Joe fan, so I went in with high hopes that this was to be one of my favourite concerts of the year. Although now, looking back to Thursday night, I really have to consider how good it was as an entire show. Now don’t get me wrong, Eskimo Joe are great musicians and their songs are epic – but I tend to think there is more to a live show than just singing your songs. Apart from the standout improvisation on ‘Life is Better With You’, this basically followed all the standard gig rules. The creativity in the set list and the general showmanship may have been slightly lacking, despite the overall positive impression of the songs.
Notwithstanding certain shortcomings at the Electric Ballroom, I am nonetheless signed up for their gig at Koko in London next April, which will no doubt be a lot more inventive as they will have new works from their forthcoming album to showcase. Shame they couldn’t have let us have even one track as a teaser…
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Eskimo Joe - Live @ the Electric Ballroom
