It has been twelve years since we have seen indie/rock band Stereophonics tour in Australia. After six studio albums including a Best Of album it was about time. Their sold out show at the Enmore Theatre was not to promote their seventh album Keep Calm And Carry On, nor was it to show a reinvention of the band (they dressed all in black as they have always been famous for); it was to entertain with the same unspoiled fervor that we have been missing.
Opening with the vibratory tracks A Thousand Trees, I Got Your Number and Pick Apart That’s New, the stage filled with a pulsing rainbow of different coloured flashing light that changed to a deep blue during the middle-eight of Stuck In A Rut.
The set was pristine, alternating between the dirty interludes of older tracks and the ornate, introspective Keep Calm And Carry On songs. The renowned Kelly Jones struck his rock star pose and smiled to himself when the audience cheered at the beginning of every song, knowing we were about to sing each lyric with him. His acoustic tracks I Wouldn’t Believe In Your Radio and Bright Red Star saw senior citizens contented and many a man-hug shared.
New songs Uppercut, Trouble and Innocent showcased the bands unified energy. Stereophonics bassist and guitarist Richard Jones and Adam Zindani had fun with each song. They hit each grit-filled note perfectly, a more raw and loud rendition of the album. Heat rose in a clouded aura above shirtless drummer Javier Weyler. He raised his hand and asked for applause, the band did this often and each time we willingly obliged.
If you didn’t get the meaning behind their music, you did after this concert. Kelly’s sarcasm was incredibly apparent in his track Mr. Writer about the British media. He said, “This song took me ten minutes to write and ten years to fuckin’ explain it.”
The crowd pounded the floor, hoping to entice the band into playing an encore of She’s Alright. The Stereophonics retook the stage and fulfilled the audience’s wish, making it the stand out sing-a-long of the night and then appeasing them with two more songs, the finale being Dakota. The whole concert had been planned pandemonium.
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