Ed Kuepper & Jim White, Alana Jagt @ The Gov, Adelaide 2/10/2025

Ed Kuepper and Jim White are doing a quick, limited four date tour to promote their new album After the Flood, a collection of songs that the pair have been touring with for the last few years. It was pure pleasure that Adelaide was included in these dates. Ed then heads of to the U.S.A., Europe and U.K with The Saints for a run of shows.

Alana Jagt has been steadily building a good reputation around Adelaide and indeed Australia with her dynamic vocal and refreshingly wonderful folk-rock music. Alana had a three-piece band behind her to elevate the sound to a new level. Opening with Somehow, Sometime, from the 2017 release, Wilderness, the worth of the band was immediately apparent with tight three-piece harmonies adding depth to the music. Stirred the Dirt followed before “a song about fishing, well fishing in a creek actually” was played out.

In Some Dream came across like a dreamy lush landscape flowing from the speakers. Wonderful stuff indeed. “Anyone know a band called Ween?” Alana asked. “They are my favourite band” and a faithful heartfelt cover of Ween’s Sarah followed.

It’s a shame Alana had to battle the dreaded “people trying to talk above the support band” syndrome. Why don’t people give support artists a fair go, but at the same time, talent won through and judging by the enthusiastic reaction of most of the audience she won over a few new fans.

One should not get fooled by the two elderly statesmen of Australian rock, sitting side by side on the stage at The Gov. Ed Kuepper on our right, bending over his guitar, strumming along with Jim White beside him with what appears to be a very basic simple drum set up, arms flailing slowing, hardly hitting the drums at all. These two are a couple of the hardest working musicians around.

Ed and Jim have released an album called After the Flood, which contain beautiful reimagined workings from Ed’s illustrious career, stretching way back to The Saints and the set delivered all but one track from the album.

With no introductions, Ed starts picking at his guitar, with the song Miracles gently flowing forth. White’s drumming is at a distance behind Ed’s vocal and guitar, but still making an atmospheric statement to the song. Ruins from 2015’s Lost Cities album followed straight after. These are men of few words. They don’t waste time with talk, in fact other than a few “thank you”, we get very little in acknowledgments. Let the music flow.

Everything That Flies sounds like a steam train gathering momentum, never letting the pace go, building to its final crescendo. Demolition gets an arousing applause and the frantic pace of The Saints 1978 classic Swing for the Crime brings people to their feet. Messin’ With the Kid follows, from The Saint’s debut album and is drenched in raw 1970’s punk.

Pavane ebbed and flowed throughout the song and during the quieter moments you could have heard a pin drop in The Gov. The song was a thing of beauty and a joy to behold. A brief “Are you having a good time” query from Ed, followed with “We are” during a guitar swap This led to the song Come One. Then followed the cinematic masterpiece in Collapse Board. The song about a man’s “last hour” before standing on the collapse board had the hair on one’s neck standing up when Ed sings the chilling words “feel the rope around your neck”. The pair brought the song to an unsettling end.

A false start to The Crying Dance had the pair on stage laughing and looking at each other before a perfect second take. Heading towards the end came Horse Under Water and the brilliant Eternally Yours which continued on for a long time with a long instrumental outtake that just kept building and building to a climatic end. Jim gets up, puts his coat on, Ed says “Thanks” and they are gone.

Do we get an encore? The crowd certainly wants it and after an incredibly long wait the pair come back on stage, looking a bit surprised. Maybe they hadn’t planned one as the song they were to play wasn’t on the set list. Jim doesn’t take his coat off as he sits behind the stage and the duo play a glorious version of Rue the Day. At last, at the end, we get more than a few words from a smiling Ed. “We’re a new band. We don’t have too many songs yet. Good night”.

October maybe a bit early to start looking at the best concerts of the year, but I am sure this one will be amongst the mix. Brilliant!

Live Review by Geoff Jenke