The Superjesus @ The Gov, Adelaide 29/9/2018
It was a real festive vibe at the home of live music at The Gov celebrating twenty years of The Superjesus big album Sumo. After a day of celebrating the AFL Grand Final all focus was keeping the celebrations going with one of Adelaide’s finest. The Superjesus were in red hot form playing one of the best shows I’ve seen them play. First show of the tour and being a sell out (well it has been for a while) no doubt got the band excited. The show was split in to two sets as Sarah McLeod said it would be “one hell of a trip down memory lane, we thought about support bands and thought fuck that, Sumo needs more than that and we’ll play all night”. The question was could McLeod sing for two and a half hours to which she replied to her own question “I was born singing”.
With Sumo being the focus of the first set being played in its entirety left no real surprises but still they came out of the blocks with fire and fury. Holy shit they were good! Opening with Down Again and Saturation McLeod made her first remarks saying “hello you good looking unarmed people we will take you on our maiden voyage in to oblivion.”
Interestingly McLeod introduced Shut My Eyes as being their attempt to sound like You Am I. I’m Stained and Sandfly are great tunes and in amongst that there was some reminiscing of their first few shows at The Crown & Anchor and The Synagogue. Sink was described as a pretty ballad written in Atlanta coming together with some last minute magic. McLeod lost a one hundred dollar bet trying to remember if Milk had been played live before as she could not remember the tunings. Finishing the set on Ashes and Dead Ended there was a promise that after the intermission the second set would “fucking blow your mind”.
Returning after twenty minutes it was McLeod going it solo on piano playing Second Sun complete with audience sing-a-long making for one of those stand out moments. The audience singing was described as “magic”. Next was Grounded followed by the comment “to infinity and beyond” with McLeod referring to her white astronaut jump suit. It was great hearing rarities such as Blisterment and Strips Of You in the set. The Kylie Minogue cover of Confide In Me was a nice addition to the set.
McLeod thanked the crowd many times taking about their hiatus and that they were sorry to have left us but would not be leaving us again after making the decision to see where they can take the band even going as far to say as “sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad but it is the magic of the chemistry that keeps us together.” It was appropriate and poignant to play Stick Together. It was a marathon show coming to end with Love and Violence followed by Gravity making this show one of their very best. Let’s hope there’s plenty more good times and success ahead for The Superjesus.
Live Review by Rob Lyon