Spiderbait, Polish Club, Pelvis @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 16/8/2024
It was maximum Friday night vibes at Hindley Street Music Hall to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Black Betty, the hit that catapulted Spiderbait back to the top of the charts. Call nostalgia, call it what you will, there’s no denying that the music landscape is so much better with Spiderbait in it and a full house is a testament to that. This was vintage Spiderbait at their very best and I would go as far as saying that this is the best I have seen them play.
Hot damn! Adelaide band Pelvis got things off to a scintillating start making all the right noises to impress the masses that were there early. It was that packed early that they would seriously have to stack people on top of each other. There is plenty to like about this psych-rock trio with their set list highlights being Citizen’s Arrest and Peach Juice.
Polish Club followed and for a two-piece they make a hell of a racket (in a good way). There were a lot of Adelaide references in their set and whilst they were glad to be back they did highlight the weird and ugly side of Hindley Street. There was a bit of sarcastic quip to fire up Adelaidians to buy tickets to their show here in October with Novak saying “we haven’t sold hardly tickets here”. That to on side, the music did all the talking with the likes of Don’t Fuck Me Over and Clarity described as that first hit of sheesha when the apple hits you rocking the joint. What was clever about their set was playing the four songs that beat Black Betty to the coveted number one spot in Triple J’s Hottest One Hundred in 2004 playing Somebody Told Me (The Killers), From The Sea (Eskimo Joe), Scar (Missy Higgins) and Take Me Out (Franz Ferdinand) with a brief comment saying “remember when there were good songs in the hottest one hundred” (yep, I agree). Closing their set on Come Party had well and truly warmed the stage.
The night did well and truly belong to Spiderbait. This will go down as one of the all time classics at Hindley Street Music Hall. The band took to the stage to raucous applause and cheers as they opened with a stripped back acoustic version of Black Betty. Just brilliantly done! It was also the twentieth anniversary of Tonight Alright which Black Betty featured and a good portion of that album featured in the set list. The first part of the set was loaded with gold bowling over Straight Through Sun, Outta My Head and Shazam! Jesus and Monty from The Unfinished Spanish Galleon of Finley Lake were fantastic before pulling out Chest Chair (no pun intended) and Hot Water and Milk from Ivy and The Big Apples.
Kram took a moment to reflect on being in Adelaide when Black Betty went number one and that our city is a special place for them. There is definitely an affinity between Spiderbait and their Adelaide fans. The celebration of Tonight Alright continued with Cows and Tonite. By the Time I Get to Howlong was fab with Kram on acoustic and Janet on harmonica as was Glockenpop which showed Kram at his finest playing drums, guitar and glockenspiel. Fucken Awesome is exactly that and it was sheer delight for die hard Spiderbait fans to hear olden goldens Old Man Sam, Sam Gribbles, Scenester and The Goodies cover Run. Kram echoed the save the Cranker mantra and highlighted the importance of saving this venue. The set closed out in epic fashion with the iconic Buy Me A Pony and Calypso topped off by a killer encore of Footy (not on the original set list), followed by a ripper Motorhead cover Ace Of Spades and the song we are all celebrating proudly Black Betty. It would be hard to find anyone who would be disappointed by what they experienced tonight. Well played Spiderbait! Well played!
Live Review By Rob Lyon