Cherie Currie, Willie J’s 6V6s @ The Ed, Adelaide 14/9/2025
It is hard to believe that the final Australian show on Cherie Currie’s final ever Australian tour was right here in Adelaide it the intimate surrounds of The Ed Castle in Adelaide’s West End. Hats off to Silverback Touring in having the vision to bring this tour to Australia and Adelaide who so often gets forgotten becoming more than a regular occurrence. It was a solid turn out and quite an enthusiastic crowd who wanted to experience and witness the legendary voice of The Runaways and trailblazing rock icon one last time. If this is the last time what a way to go out leaving nothing to chance and giving everything to her performance.
Willie J’s 6V6s from Melbourne Rock City were freaking incredible testing out everyone’s ear drums with a short fire rock set setting the tone early for what was to come. If there is an band to check out this week it’s these guys. Hot damn! They’re smokin’ hot and no doubt we will be hearing a lot more from these guys over the summer. It was a ballsy opener covering Rose Tattoo’s Bad Boys For Love pulling it off convincingly before tearing their way through Night At The Gem and That’s All She Wrote. There was no filler in their set either with the likes of Squeeze and Sinner impressing leaving the stage smouldering.
As Cherie Currie and band made their way through the crowd to the stage it was a “Adelaide, how the hell are you doin’ tonight!” Wasting no time at all it was the scintillating opener Queen Of Noise maxing out those rock vibes on California Paradise and Roxy Roller. It would have been a tough assignment consolidating a career spanning fifty years in to a sixty minute set but I think what was presented provided a perfect snap shot in to the career of Cherie Currie. All the staples and the songs you would be expecting from The Runaways were there but was also great that 2019’s Blvds of Splendor got a look in as well.
Cherie’s band were absolute guns adding plenty of fire power with her son JK on drums, Blane Barker on bass, John Ashton on guitar and Sydney-sider Nick Maybury on guitar also. Mr X was one of those songs from Blvds of Splendor to which Cherie said “how do you say no to Slash” to not include this one on the album. Getting in amongst the crowd on It’s Alright encouraging the crowd to sing back “it’s alright” with everything they’ve got. You Wreck Me was a bout a “shitty relationship” and a personal revelation about not having dated since 2010 but got a good song out of it.
Even after fifty years of doing these songs Cherie sung with a huge smile and was just as passionate about them now compared to the earlier stages of her career. C’mon was rocking then slowing it down on Rock & Roll Oblivion. The crowd were really lapping up The Runaways classics with Is It Day Or Night? followed by American Nights. Stating there would be “no stinking encore” there was a homage to David Bowie suggesting if it wasn’t for him she would not be here playing a ripping version of Rebel Rebel. With one last song left, it was the big one that got hips shaking with c-c-c-Cherry Bomb! Epic! It was a fantastic night getting to experience live this icon one last time.
Live Review By Rob Lyon