Under The Southern Stars @ Bonython Park, Adelaide 18/3/2022
How good does it feel to be back at a music festival with people? Fucking unreal! Credit where credit is due the promoter and organisers behind the scenes at Under The Southern Stars really do deserve an award for pulling off a festival of this magnitude with international headliners. The numbers might not have been where the need to be but what this does say is Australia is open and ready to rock ‘n roll and more importantly start restoring consumer confidence to buy tickets knowing this events such as this are on and will be happening. I thought staging, production and all the things you would expect at a rock festival were really well done.
Adelaide is definitely in the enviable position of having Under The Southern Stars over three days giving them the chance to see their favourite headliner two times. Whether you wanted to bring your chair or stand down the front it was really up to the punter to work out how they wanted to rock ‘n roll. Adelaide’s very own Germein got things off famously before Melbourne rockers Electric Mary kicked things up another notch.
The Black Sorrows are a class act. So, so good! Mainstay Joe Camilleri didn’t skip a beat encouraging Adelaide to get off their keester’s as we have been waiting three years for this. Their set was loaded with hits and it seemed like forty five minutes was nowhere near enough but heck the calibre of hits was salivating with the likes of Shape I’m In, Harley & Rose, Daughters Of Glory topped off by Chained To The Wheel.
Rose Tattoo brought plenty of grunt and muscle to the UTSS stage and it was a much awaited return to Adelaide (last here in 2019. Angry Anderson hit the nail on the head encouraging fans to “have the night of your life and the time of your life”. I guarantee you that’s what we did. The Tatts absolutely rocked for forty five minutes and I’m sure people’s ears are still ringing a few suburbs away. Their set was bursting with hits including the likes of Out Of This Place, Juice on the Loose, We Can’t Be Beaten, Bad Boy For Love and Rock ‘n Roll Outlaw.
OMG! I was so excited when they added Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to the bill and they didn’t let us down. It was a low key build entrance but damn they made their presence known. Guitarist Peter Hayes was next level with his approach to safety masking up like a balaclava and face not visible to the fans. Up against the clock there wasn’t a lot of chit chat letting the music do all the talking. Opening with Red Eyes and Tears they ploughed through with Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. What I loved about their set was they pretty traversed their entire back catalogue which included Hate The Taste, Berlin and In Like The Rose. They finished in a blaze of glory with Spread Your Love and their big hit Whatever Happened to My Rock ‘n’ Roll (Punk Song). Can’t wait to see them again tonight.
The band we were all waiting for who don’t need an introduction is Cheap Trick. Unreal! Fantastic! Brilliant as always. This fan boy was very happy. “Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls please welcome to the stage the best fucking rock band you have ever seen… CHEAP TRICK!” It was on! The band hit it hard on Hello There followed by big singles Dream Police and If You Want My Love and as Rick Nielsen pointed out did better here in Australia and “shit” everywhere else. Stop This Game off All Shock Up as was new tune Light Up The Fire. The band looked great and sounded great with Nielsen saying we “almost got it right our mistakes are real” after playing I Can’t Understand It. Fans were yelling out for all sorts of requests including Gonna Raise Hell to which Nielsen said let’s play She’s Tight.
It was bliss and fans loved big hit The Flame in all its splendour. I Want You To Love Me and Surrender were big moments in their set and the crowd was full of voice. It was a fun and enjoyable set and it came to an end with Gonna Raise Hell and Goodnight. One more chance to see them on Sunday!
Rest up, we’ll be ready to back up for night two!
Live Review By Rob Lyon