Jeff Rosenstock @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 10/11/2024
Jeff Rosenstock! After a massive day at Froth & Fury Fest backing up for a Sunday night gig seemed like a tough proposition as well as managing all the aches and pains that comes with the experience. As my eldest said “have a teaspoon of cement and toughen up” and it was those words that prompted a call to action to head in to Lion Arts Factory to see American musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Long Island, New York Jeff Rosenstock. Knowing very little about Rosenstock and on reflection this proved to be one of the gems of the week.
It was a parochial allegiance of fans that gathered to see Rostenstock and band go through their paces playing a spirited and lively set that focused mostly on newish album Hellmode. With a taste of summer it was hot and steamy and more like a sauna in Lion Arts Factory but that didn’t stop Rosenstock from playing a rampaging marathon of a show. It was an epic twenty-eight song set list that gave a really representation of his career to date. With limited time for banter, it was literally ploughing through one song then starting the next.
The band walked out on the tail end of System Of A Down’s Chop Suey! playing the remainder. If this didn’t rev the crowd and band up nothing would. Their set was off to a flyer with WILL U STILL U and HEAD from Hellmode keeping that intensity going on Scram! and LIKED U BETTER. Each show was unique with the band mixing up the set list adding that element of surprise in terms of what might be coming up next. In fostering a sense of gig etiquette Rosenstock encouraged fans to “look to your neighbour” in sharing the space and making it a positive experience.
Echoing the obvious saying “it’s steamy in here” the crowd didn’t seem to mind as they were right in to from the get go. Sing-a-longs and clap-a-longs were the flavour of the night with Festival Song standing out as one of those moments. SOFT LIVING was killer and Rosenstock tried to make sense of the thirty minute time difference. Nausea, FUTURE IS DUMB and Wave Goodnight To Me were killer.
Interesting that Rosenstock made reference to Me First And The Gimme Gimmes playing down the road at The Gov saying the competition is “cut throat” dedicating The Trash The Trash The Thrash to the fan in the NOFX t-shirt at the front who chose not to go and see their competitor (imagine if that was a triple bill, hells bells!).
One of the highlights for me was the acoustic version of Future 86 before the banter disintegrated with a valiant attempt to normalize talk about “going to the toilet”. So many good songs but it was the back end of their set including 9/10, You, In Weird Cities and 3 Summers that was gold.
Returning for an encore it was a passionate acknowledgment of country followed by a brief moment of reflection about the last time they were here suggesting they slept on a skate ramp with spiders. Rounding an entertaining and lively show with Ohio Tpke, Pash Rash and We Begged 2 Explode I’ll definitely be back next time.
Live Review By Rob Lyon