Jesse Welles @ The Gov, Adelaide 30/1/2026
Jesse Welles “overnight success” was a decade in the making. A true twenty-first-century star, Welles began releasing lo-fi homemade recording in 2012, posting them on the internet. He continued to release songs and albums under various names, slowly gaining popularity and even going on to support some big-name bands like Greta Van Fleet and Royal Blood. However, it was his 2023 shift to TikTok—first with covers, then with biting, timely protest songs focused on current events—that finally set his career ablaze.
The momentum was intense at The Gov. The show sold out almost immediately after tickets were released, and by showtime, the room and beer garden were packed to capacity. It was a sweltering night in Adelaide, but the heat inside the venue owed as much to the music as the weather.
Jesse Welles casually walked on stage with no fanfare, in a red singlet, with an acoustic guitar and harmonica in a cradle around his neck. With no acknowledgment to the audience, he started picking the guitar for Whistle Boeing to rapturous applause. The List followed, with its Dylan-esque rap before Join Ice bought a loud roar from the crowd.
Welles’ songwriting possesses that rare quality of sounding deceptively simple—the kind of “easy” writing that everyone wishes they could do, yet few can master. Fat rolled off his tongue so simply, yet the words are un-apologetic, “All the food on the shelf/ Was engineered for your health/ So, you’re gonna have to take the blame.” It wasn’t until after this barrage of social commentary that he finally acknowledged the room with a, “Yeah, Adelaide.”
The Great Caucasian God, Fentanyl, United Health and Walmart quickly followed each other, blending harsh and cutting lyrics, with amusing ones. Then came the turning point: during The Poor, Welles was joined by drummer Connor Streeter and bassist Joel Parks. While it famously took Bob Dylan four years to “go electric” in front of his audience, it took Welles just ten songs. The addition of the rhythm section added a visceral new layer to his sound.
Domestic Error was the first full “band” song to roll out with Philanthropist quickly following. It was obvious Jesse wasn’t going to spend any time preaching to the crowd, he let the words of the songs do that. Red followed with its hardest lyrics yet including “When the war gets here, we’re all gonna hold hands, All the Baptists and the Catholics, All the Marxists and the Fascists”.
God, Abraham & Xanaz was pure electric with Jesse letting loose towards the end of the song, Jesse sounding at times like a psychedelic Hendrix with his guitar work and with the line “Greenland is in trouble”, it was truly wonderful.
While Welles evokes the spirit of a 1963 Greenwich Village folk singer, he isn’t beholden to the past. The band delivered a “loud and proud” surprise in a rendition of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, anchored by Joel Parks’ gritty bass lines, and then a haunting version of Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box. The addition of the harmonica on the latter felt so natural it was as if the instrument had always been part of the original arrangement.
A broken string eventually forced a rare moment of dialogue. Welles mused, “I love Adelaide, but everywhere I go I find people don’t want to be where they are.” He offered no further explanation, leaving the crowd to wonder if he was simply more comfortable letting his music speak for him.
Masks Off, Change is in the Air, Wheel were played out before another cover, this time a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, Have You Ever Seen the Rain was lapped up by the crowd. Fear is the Mind Killer closed out the band set and all three left the stage to a deafening roar.
Finally, Jesse came back out, just him and his guitar. Bugs rolled out with its simple lyric and guitar picking and some interesting bee sounds. “If your gonna kill a bug, don’t do it, because I like bugs” said it all.
Turtles, another simple ditty, followed but with a powerful message about pollution in the lyrics.
The final cover was finally and unsurprisingly, a Dylan cover in Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright, a true homage to the original. Saint Steve Irwin got a roar from the crowd and then Jesse told us “I wanted to play this in Australia” before playing See Arkansaw. Again, no explanation as to why.
Horses and the heavy hitting finale, War isn’t Murder closed out the set and the evening. They say everything old is new again. Welles’ audience is young, yet his music draws a straight line back to the legends: John Prine, Pete Seeger, Loudon Wainwright III, and Bob Dylan amongst others. While many of his younger fans might not be familiar with those names, Welles has absorbed their DNA and crafted something entirely that is his own.
With an invitation to the 2025 Newport Folk Festival already secured, the question remains: will Jesse Welles become the spokesperson for this generation as Dylan was for mine? Based on audience reception and the raw power and lyrical depth witnessed from Jesse Welles tonight, the odds are firmly in his favour.
Live Review By Geoff Jenke