Stone Roses @ Festival Hall, Melbourne (Thu 7 Mar 2013)

OK- It’s been a while. March was a busy month for gigs as well as work, so I haven’t had a chance to write about much. This show was about a month ago now, so forgive me if my recollection is a bit hazy. Actually, to be honest, there’s not a lot to recollect.

I went to this gig with an old mate Pete, his girlfriend Shell and a friend of theirs. As with fun a few nights ago, I was ecstatic when The Stone Roses announced Future Music sideshows.

One thing that has always struck me about The Stone Roses is the fact that they released ONE amazing album almost a quarter of a century ago (The Stone Roses in 1989), that was followed up by an (arguably) weak followup five years later (Second Coming in 1994) and yet they’re now one of the biggest touring acts on this years festival circuit. Don’t get me wrong- I fucking love this band- when tickets went on sale I snapped them up immediately, which was lucky as they sold out within hours across the country. My point is that there are a bunch of bands out there that would never manage to fill the halls and stadiums that these guys are doing so long after their heyday, and with such a limited amount of releases.

The set was the same for every show on the tour (except the festival shows) but was impressive nonetheless. Ian Brown said nothing at all through the show. Nothing, not a thing. OK- he might have said “thank you” after a song, but that was it. Mani swapped basses between almost every song (totally unnecessary as all the songs are in the same tuning), but it added to the night, and each bass had a different motif on it, so if nothing else, it was entertaining to wonder what was coming next. Reni did what Reni does best- playing the hypnotic beats as if they were on tour for the first time, and John Squire played his unique style of wailing guitar (possibly too much in parts). My only real comment was that the twelve or so minutes of Fools Gold got a bit tiresome after a while. Great song, but being that it’s probably their most ‘produced’ single, it doesn’t translate that well live. I took a little video of it which I’ll upload in the next day or so.

Some of my ‘all time’ favourite songs are from the Roses debut, so hearing songs like Waterfall and She Bangs The Drums was sensational. Sally Cinnamon, a non album release from the late 80’s sounded great, while Love Spreads from Second Coming, is undoubtedly my favourite Stone Roses track, so hearing that live was obviously a treat.

It was an excellent show, and I certainly don’t want the above to make it sound like I didn’t love it- I really did.

Apparently they’re working on new material and a release some time down the track. I wait in anticipation for the Third Coming.