This title is a line from the song Sunset Studies off the album of the same name. This tour it felt to me as if the band were energised and had regained some of their passion for their music which truthfully seemed to be missing at some of the gigs I saw for the Watch Me Disappear tour. I have seen shows by them where it appears that they are going through the motions and even though their music can stand alone it is such a joy to see them enjoying themselves on stage with each other and with the audience once more. i sometimes get a sense that there is some ambivalence from some of the band about live shows and touring – almost as if it is a necessary evil however that wasn’t apparent during these shows for the most part.
This is going to be some of my thoughts about the On the Quiet tour which I am thankful I got to see in it’s entirety. This was an opportunity in my life that I knew would not come around again – to see an entire tour (DC it was great to share this honour with you – though I guess you don’t want me to remind you about you missing Rich Girl when you were getting Glenn a drink- I think this was at the Hepburn Springs show). Damn I am glad they had a relatively small tour!!
I am loving the new version of One Crowded Hour more and more each time I hear it and more importantly, it looks like the band has regained their enthusiasm for playing this song. In fact with a number of songs they really do seem to be enjoying themselves on stage. Of course Dave always seems to be having a great time on stage but he wasn’t alone and on this tour we got to see the others also having fun with the songs.
The songs that most surprised me were the songs from Watch Me Disappear. They sounded more vibrant and energetic. They seemed quite different to the album versions and personally, I feel this can only be a good thing. This stripped back reworking of those songs meant that the focus was forced back on to the songs themselves and whilst it could have showed them up to be poorly written music and lyrics instead it showed how powerful these songs can be when played the way Augie March wants to perform them.
I mentioned in one of the early blogs for this tour that I finally ‘got’ Pennywhistle. I needed to hear it played the way they played it on this tour to see the beauty in this song. This had totally escaped me from my many listening to the album and also the shows last year when the band were touring the album.
Sunstroke House, Rich Girl, Little Wonder and Heartbeat and Sails again highlighted just how fresh the older Augie March songs can and do sound. It has been wonderful to hear these songs played with such passion and emotion by the band. Ken’s trumpet (Ken Gardner, Arnold Horns) during Little Wonder always put a smile on my face when he played – just beautiful.
There Is No Such Place and Train – what can I say, these have been staples of Augie March shows and they surprised us by again reworking these songs. Again these really worked for me during this tour. It is great to see a band step away from not only their own but the audiences comfort levels …. I never would have thought that I could love this version of Train as much as the original one which used to leave me drenched in sweat from dancing at gigs but I do.
And of course I have to single out Stranger Strange as the stand out song for the entire tour. I didn’t hear a bad version of it. It kind of scares me to realise that the Arnold Horns (in varying amounts) were possibly not originally planned to be a part of this tour as I now cannot imagine this song without Matt Habben’s haunting sax solo- it truly was heartbreaking in it’s beauty. This really HAS to be released on a cd at some stage.
Interestingly for me it was the songs from Moo You Bloody Choir that I had the most trouble understanding on this tour. Apart from One Crowded Hour which I mentioned earlier as having loved, Baron of Sentiment and Cold Acre generally left me feeling ambivalent during the gigs. I fully acknowledge that these are two songs that will never be my favourites however Pennywhistle was also in that category until I heard it played in a way that connected with me. It’s all good though as they were often two of the most popular songs judging from the audiences reactions. Bottle Baby was fantastic to hear a couple of times as well.
Their choice of Days by The Kinks as the cover song to include this tour was genius. By the end of the tour Augie March had made this song their own. In my mind Days was Ed and Adam’s song- they owned it musically.
What else were the highlights for me – of course how could I forget…. the backing vocals!!!!! OH MY GOD – at the risk of sounding like Ed’s very own one person fan club can I just comment on the lovely tone in your voice. To hear him, Dave and Adam clearly as they sang was an absolute gift for the audience.
All of the band seemed to push themselves during this tour …. Adam attacked the lap steel and forced it to sing to us, Kiernan’s prowess on any instrument he picked up and his obvious pleasure in creating music is amazing to watch and to be honest at times it felt almost as if I was intruding on his own private party (is it only me that feels as if I am a voyeur when watching him?). Ed – yes of course his bass playing is fantastic however as mentioned before it was his voice that captivated me this time around. Dave as always I feel that he is the one who keeps the band playing as a band. He is always watching the others and often gives a grin or smile to them, almost as if he is forcing them to connect with him on stage. And as for Glenn – as I have said in previous blogs this tour his voice is sounding better than I have heard it in a while but the most enjoyable thing this tour was seeing how (apart from one night….hmmmm now which could that have been ….coughs, Sydney first show) he bantered with the band and the audience. Rather than it seeming to be an uncomfortable experience he seemed to actually enjoy many of these interactions.
My favourite shows were the second shows from both Melbourne and Sydney and the Newcastle gig.
I am going to try and put some links up to the support bands in the next few days as well. I should have done that earlier but to be honest never thought about it.
And finally a big thank you to everyone who came up at shows and said hi to me and said that they had read my ramblings here and also thank you for the comments people have made on here. I freely admit that this whole blogging thing is not something I ever thought I would do and especially never thought I would be blogging about Augie March. The attention has been at times ….. interesting (ha ha) and I hope that for the most part people are enjoying reading about my personal opinions on the shows I see.
Mel
ps. I am trying to think about what else to add to the blog in between gigs so if anyone has any ideas or contributions let me know. I will be contacting a few of my artistic/musical friends to see if I can link to some of their Augie – related things.
Posted by melbells 
Posted by melbells 
Posted by melbells 
