The Rubens @ The Gov, Adelaide 27/4/2022
Adelaide has been spoilt for choice over recent weeks with some awesome shows to check out. Making up for lost time there was no hesitation on my part heading down to check out The Rubens at The Gov. In short, incredible! When thinking about shows of the year I have no doubt The Rubens will be included on those lists. Finally, Adelaide has been able to hear their killer 2021 album 0202 live and the set was heavily focused on showcasing their new songs.
It was a really good atmosphere in The Gov with the band opening with Muddy Evil Plain and front man Sam Margin held up his Coopers Pale with a big smile to acknowledge the crowd. Heavy Weather followed with much delight from the crowd and Sam said that it had been and felt like a really long three years since their last tour here also apologising for the f-bomb dropped in there with plenty of younger folk in the crowd which was great to see. The Rubens have definitely elevated and taken their performance to another level. They sounded and looked great bringing plenty of good times to The Gov. Sam later asked if Adelaide was up for a big night with one crowd member replying with a big “fuck yeah!”.
Go On and God Forget from Lo La Ru were great inclusions as was crowd favourite Stampy complete with audience sing-a-long. Their set list covered all four album with Sam commenting “releasing four albums is crazy and we’ll be playing our favourites from each”. Current single Waste A Day was sensational as was Time Of My Life and Freakout.
There was a moment of reflection with Sam mentioning that The Rubens have been going for a decade now with things starting from a demo on a laptop which was sent in to Triple J, labels got interested and essentially “Triple J told them what to do”. He also added they quit their jobs, navigated their way through a pandemic and should plenty of gratitude to fans hanging on to their tickets. It only seemed fitting that the next song played was the one that started it all with Lay It Down.
The remainder of the set was loaded with awesome including Thank You, Hallelujah, Million Man and Live In Life. The crowd chant for one more song was on in earnest and the band returned for two more with the uber popular Hoops and Masterpiece to top off an awesome night. Don’t miss out on the remaining dates on their tour, grabs your tickets to experience this awesome show.
Live Review By Rob Lyon