Paul Dempsey, Alana Jagt @ The Gov, Adelaide 31/8/2023
Simply perfect! Paul Dempsey made a grand return to the Kingdom for another special night of music from his own solo career, some awesome Something For Kate classics and a couple surprise covers to make this the complete performance. It was a big crowd, close to a sell out having all the feels of a Saturday night.
Equally as impressive was Alana Jagt who was the opening act again making for quite the pairing with Paul Dempsey. The crowd really warmed to Alana and there’s no questioning the fact Alana is a super talent with plenty of great songs in the kit bag with highlights on the night being Lullaby #2, Darkness Lies and Imagining Life off last year’s album Goodbye Grote Bollen.
The gates to the Kingdom were open and the great man Paul Dempsey himself said it is “wonderful to be back in the Kingdom’. It was a bold opener cover Bruce Springsteen’s Brilliant Disguise which was followed by Fastest Of Friends. With Dempsey referring to time as being an abstract concept and if the crowd wanted to sing, just sing, adding that it felt like a Saturday night already. Captain (Million Miles An Hour) was awesome and a big crowd pleaser early. Miracle Mile was one song that no one had heard before, perfecto! Have You Fallen Out of Love? was another fav with Dempsey taking a moment to take it all in saying that he loves playing The Gov with the ‘surround audience” being so close.
It was the first time for hearing hearing new Something For Kate tunes from Modern Medieval played solo and Situation Room and Supercomputer sounded so good. Interest that Dempsey played the one guitar, tuned by himself saying that his guitar returned from surgery but it’s “nervous”. A big tick for Strange Loop and the death and horror of Out the Airlock was a proud one for Dempsey making a full room sing-a-long to this. There was a huge applause and cheer for the cover of Middle Kids song Edge Of Town which Dempsey claims he forgotten to play! Be Somebody was about being a total failure and refreshingly an upfront “fuckhead”.
Dempsey is ahead of his time with Ramona Was A Waitress, written fifteen years ago before AI was a thing posing that if you were part human, part machine, what if you had a shit job? Deep! The last part of the set was absolute gold with Take Us To Your Leader, a ripping yet ballsy cover of Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye… wow… incredible! Finishing with Bats and Theme From Nice Guy Dempsey returned with a two song encore of The True Sea and Idiot Oracle to top off a great night. This show is going to take some beating. Awesome.
Live Review By Rob Lyon