Ash @ The Gov, 18th March ’16
Ash! Kablammo! It was a great night and a much welcomed return for Northern Irish band Ash who are celebrating the release of their sixth studio album Kablammo.
This tour was a tough sell in Adelaide with many suffering Fringe burnout and bank accounts taking a hammering with all that’s been on in Adelaide nevertheless it was a small but enthusiastic crowd that watch this trio go through their paces. Ash are one of those bands for me that I could not miss seeing and had to be there.
Ash were right on the money from first drop with Go! Fight! Win! What a belter to open with followed by one of my favourites Jack Names The Planets. Front man Tim Wheeler was full of smiles talking about everything from Hilltop Hoods to Leabrook Leprechauns to St Patricks Day. It was also unfortunately timing with a faulty guitar lead slowing things down a bit but was timely as Wheeler encouraged the crowd to move in closer. It must be hard for an international act touring all over the place and playing to such a small crowd (at least it was better than Brisbane). Adelaide has to get behind these shows if we want more of them. Despite that Ash played like there were twenty thousand packed in The Gov, they were brilliant.
The next few were just straight out classics with A Life Less Ordinary, Goldfinger and Wild Surf. Wheeler remarked that it was 2013 when they were last year for the 1977 classic album tour and coincidentally played with Surviving Sharks (who were great tonight as openers) giving them the hats off. There was plenty of new stuff off Kablammo with Free and Cocoon impressing the crowd. A bit of Jackie Chan inspired Kung Fu is always great as was Oh Yeah. Wheeler held up his bottle of water saying that he was on the hard stuff for St Patrick’s Day.
More new tunes continued the Kablammo flavour with Let’s Ride, Evel Knievel (interesting instrumental) and Machinery getting the nod. It was the classics that the fans wanted and they kept coming with Oh Yeah, Shining Light and Girl From Mars that got the crowd going. It was interesting that the band had been receiving tweets about the song Girl From Mars from astronauts on the European space station.
The encore was stellar topping off a great night with Walking Barefoot and Angel Interceptor. At this point Wheeler thanked the crowd took a swig of “rocket fuel” for the last song promising to be back next year with a new album. Burn Baby Burn was tops and left many in a good mood for the journey home. I hope they tell all their mates what they missed out on!
Set List:
Go! Fight! Win!
Jack Names the Planets
A Life Less Ordinary
Goldfinger
Wild Surf
Free
Kung Fu
Cocoon
Sometimes
Let’s Ride
Oh Yeah
Orpheus
Evel Knievel
Arcadia
Machinery
Shining Light
Girl From Mars
Encore:
Walking Barefoot
Angel Interceptor
Burn Baby Burn
Photos: Ian Bell
Whether it is rummaging through vinyl at record stores such as Clarity and Title finding hidden gems to scouring the internet to find that album by the next big thing or chasing bands to get that elusive autograph and photo his passion is music all the way.
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- Sick Of It All - January 19, 2017
- Refused - January 11, 2017
