Eskimo Joe, one of Australia's most beloved bands, is gearing up to take fans on a unique musical journey with their upcoming acoustic theatre tour.
Renowned for their electrifying performances on festival stages, the band will strip things back for an intimate experience that promises to captivate audiences in a whole new way.Having just wrapped up the Lookout Festival tour headlined by +LIVE+ and Incubus, the West Australian trio is keen to dial things back for their acoustic headline tour, guitarist Stu MacLeod says.
"I think there's a variety of different sort of show formats and each one has their positives," he says, "and I think for me, the appeal of the acoustic shows is that you get a chance to connect a bit more with the audience and pull out some songs that you might not play on a big stage rock performance.
"You also get a chance to tell a few stories and interact with the crowd in a bit more of a personal way – that's the bit that stands out as the unique proposition for it."
MacLeod admits these shows can be more fun than the big rock shows, because it allows each of the band members to let their own personalities out on stage and connect directly with the audience.
"I mean, we're songwriters at heart, and performance is part of what we do, but the thing with the acoustic performance is you get to let the songs breathe a bit more and there's a lot more dynamics, so you can bring it right down and you can bring it right up," he says.
"So you get to play around with that side of the performance as well, which is super interesting and exciting – it's not just a Michael Bay movie with explosions going on all the time."
There may not be much in the way of pyrotechnics on this tour, but MacLeod promises there will be more spontaneity than a regular Eskimo Joe show, as well as delving into the stories behind the songs themselves.
"I think storytelling is a big part of the acoustic show performance kind of focus, just weaving in the stories of how the songs came to be or the journey of the actual songs themselves, but also the stories behind the people they might've been connected to and the places we were in our lives," he says.
"I think it's not only that storytelling aspect, but also the chance for a bit of conversation between ourselves and between the audience – there's a lot of organic kind of spontaneous happenings with the acoustic performance where I think the rock show is a bit more structured and a bit more set in stone."
So, can we expect to see some heckling at these shows? "Totally. I prefer to use the term audience interaction, but heckling is definitely up for grabs," MacLeod laughs. "I mean, to be honest, when we first started I think 80 per cent of our show was just bad stand-up because we didn't have enough material to sustain our performance."
Promising to keep his "veritable truck load" of bad dad jokes at bay, Stu reflects on the challenges of scheduling a national run of tour dates with glaringly obvious omissions, which have been pointed out by fans on social media since the tour's announcement.
"I mean, you can't be everywhere all at once, but you try and do your best, and at the end of the day, this is a tour that was brought to us by a promoter, so we are largely in the hands of the promoter as to where we can go and where they have connections," he admits.
"But look, calling it a national tour might've been presumptuous. I prefer the term 'regional acoustic tour' just to avoid upsetting people in Tasmania and Adelaide."
From Logan to Proserpine and even Mount Isa, the band has a number of dates scheduled across regional Queensland, which is about as far from their native Fremantle as they can get.
"We do have a good time in Queensland. I think there's a lot of venues and a lot of support for live music in Queensland – and maybe they're just looking for a chance to get into the air-conditioned rooms, who knows?" MacLeod jokes.
"I think those smaller towns, those smaller regional centres that don't have a lot of traffic, you get a lot of really grateful people rocking up to your shows saying, 'Thank god you're here, this is awesome'. And that brings its own sort of level of excitement and enthusiasm, and generally makes for a great show."
Eskimo Joe 2024 Tour Dates
Sat 25 May - Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre (Sydney)Sun 26 May - The Concourse Lounge (Sydney)
Fri 31 May - Logan Entertainment Centre (Brisbane)* with Dan Sultan
Thu 20 Jun - Red Earth Arts Precinct (Karratha)
Fri 21 Jun - Red Earth Arts Precinct (Karratha)
Sat 22 Jun - Canarvon Civic Centre
Fri 28 Jun - Albany Entertainment Centre
Sun 30 Jun - Esperance Civic Centre
Fri 5 Jul - The Wedge (Gippsland)
Sat 6 Jul - Kingston City Hall (Melbourne)
Sun 7 Jul - Queanbeyan PAC
Tue 9 Jul - Horsham Town Hall Centre
Thu 11 Jul - Mildura Arts Centre
Fri 12 Jul - Swan Hill Town Hall PACC
Sat 13 Jul - The Art House Theatre (Central Coast)
Fri 26 Jul - Mount Isa Civic Centre
Wed 7 Aug - Mackay Entertainment and Convention Centre
Thu 8 Aug - Proserpine Entertainment Centre
