Custard party like it’s 1999 in nostalgic 'loverama'.
Early on during iconic '90s Brisbane pop four-piece Custard’s late-night set, charismatic frontman Dave McCormack responded to an enthusiastic request from the audience by advising that the set list had been focused grouped, arrived upon months in advance, and was all about “jobs and growth”.
Like most of Dave’s on-stage utterances, there was an element of truth in this, an element of satire and an element of absurdity.
After spending over a decade-and-a-half in the back of the fridge, the reheated Custard’s set and delivery was smooth and tasty, with no lumps. It was meticulously crafted and contained recurrent jokes about aging, mid-song interludes and fourth wall breaking references to the pacing and structure of the set list.
Bathed in a purple light, the band opened with the album opener for 1999’s 'Loverama', ‘Hit Song’, then followed it up with another hit song, ‘Anatomically Correct’ from 'We Have The Technology', before getting a little existential with their more recent release, ‘In The Grand Scheme Of Things (None of This Really Matters)’.
Click here to read our recent interview with Custard.
Other newer tracks, such as ‘1990s’ and ‘2000 Woman’, are both reflections upon the past, which inevitably come with growing older.
While the band has always had something to parody: technology, the music industry, and often themselves, the group’s collective descent into late-middle age inspired most of the evening’s banter. Dave consistently updated punters on the impact that the more rollicking numbers like ‘Apartment’ and ‘Pinball Lez’ were having on his Fitbit monitored heart rate.
Like a doting dad, he periodically noted that it was getting past our bed times but still inspired the fellow parents to dance like they’d had too much wine at their 50th on ‘We Are The Parents’.
Beneath the comedic veneer, though, Custard, like their American contemporaries Cake, have always been a slick and proficient musical outfit. As a band, they are little like a mullet in reverse: party up the front, all business at the back.
It is the solid foundation laid by Paul Medew on bass, Andrew Strong on guitar and Glenn Thompson on drums that allows Dave to wax lyrical. Glenn and Dave reversed roles for a trio of tracks, though, including on one of their biggest hits, ‘Music Is Crap’.
The show ended with a couple of set-piece audience interaction numbers: ‘Lucky Star’ was a chance for the crowd to whisper along to the chorus, ‘I Feel Like Ringo’ included a mid-song dance break.
The response, Dave said, made some old men very happy. The feeling was mutual.
