The last time I saw Hoodoo Gurus live, the show was billed as their final show ever.
That was in November 1997, at Selina's at Coogee Bay Hotel. They intended to – and did – split up early 1998 before reforming in 2003. I had aimed to get my family and dog to Birdsville in 2023 for their show at the Big Red Bash, but was turned back after two and half days' driving due to rain-driven road closures!For me, and much of tonight's crowd at Gold Coast's Miami Marketta (8 December), the Hoodoos were a staple of growing up. The magnificent album 'Stoneage Romeos' celebrates 40 years in 2024, and the Hoodoos have embarked on the Back To The Stone-Age tour to commemorate the occasion, fresh from a series of gigs across the US.
The record's 20-year anniversary was celebrated with the issue of the 'Stoneage Cameos', where the album was played in full by such Australian music luminaries as You Am I ('Tojo'), Spiderbait ('My Girl') and Grinspoon ('I Was A Kamikaze Pilot').
Harking back to 1984, when the original album was released, I still remember how raw the record sounded then, really different to the other music we were listening to at the time. Even the famous and outrageous cover art stood the album apart.
In music, awards aren't everything, but the band probably stands out as having not been awarded many gongs across their illustrious career; perhaps the most notable other than their ARIA Hall of Fame induction in 2007, is winning Best Debut Album in 1984 (for 'Stoneage Romeos') at the Countdown Australian Music Awards.
We are assured a fantastic evening, as the band promises to play the album in full and in sequence, followed by hits from their follow-up albums, all of which have also spawned some amazing music.
Screamfeeder - image © Bill Prendergast
Screamfeeder from Brisbane have played since the early 1990s, and put on an energetic 45-minute set to lead into the main act. The band gave the impression they have calmed somewhat from a hectic 1990s when this music was at its height.
Singer and bassist Kellie Lloyd came onstage with a cup of tea and immediately ditched the shoes for a more relaxed barefoot style. They played a great set, drummer Phil Usher playing some great fills, each time slightly different, almost holding back before hitting the skins, but his timing was perfect.
Lloyd at one stage highlighted the appreciation they had for the Hoodoos for asking them to support; she noted her first album ever was a copy of 'Stoneage Romeos' received when she was 14. She was driven to buy her first bass, and the first song she mastered was 'Dig It Up'.
Screamfeeder - image © Bill Prendergast
Screamfeeder wound up the set on what they see as their key, anthemic piece, 'Hi Cs', which we were told is a real Brissie song. Usher was amazing on the piece, to the extent that he scored a kiss on his sweaty head from guitarist Tim Steward. The crowd had been well and truly warmed up with a high-energy set.
The Hoodoos appeared onstage, and launched straight into '(Let's All) Turn On', often known by its refrain, "that's what I like". What a piece to open the album and the set on! This one piece let us know instantly the Hoodoos had not lost any of their famed energy.
'I Want You Back' followed, perhaps the classic hit of the album, again with all the vigour I remember from the 1980s. 'Arthur' was next ("it's about a bass player"), followed by the fantastic 'Death Ship', probably one of the two or three absolute highlights of the evening for me.
Hoodoo Gurus - image © Bill Prendergast
'Dig It Up' followed, again another brilliant song, despite its unusual subject matter, and when the crowd exploded in applause at the end of the song, Dave Faulkner noted there were obviously a few depraved people in the audience!
Faulkner downplayed the quality of the beautiful 'My Girl' noting it's called a '1-4-5' in the music industry (after its simple chord construction), but its simplicity did not disappoint the crowd. My personal favourite followed, with 'Zanzibar'. What a beautiful song!
'Leilani' was the first single for the band a few years prior to the release of the full album, and Faulkner was suitably weird, saying he wanted to speak to his tribe, and the crowd is his tribe tonight. The song ends in a huge display of yellow light strobes, just to end it on a suitably subtle note.
'Tojo' is of course another of the classics, and probably the loudest the crowd got all evening, with its simple and catchy chorus which had the crowd really screaming. 'I Was A Kamikaze Pilot' followed with another very wild version.
Hoodoo Gurus - image © Bill Prendergast
At this point, we were through the classic album subject of the 40-year anniversary, but the Hoodoos continued to please, leading into a range of their subsequent material. The latter half of the show included such gems as 'Death Defying', which drew a particularly excited crowd reaction, 'Come Anytime' and 'The Right Time'.
'Bittersweet' was another that drew a huge reaction, although Faulkner highlighted it's a bit different from the rest of their oeuvre; perhaps he feels the lyrics are slightly less upbeat than the rest of their music. Nonetheless, it was a classic rendition and drew thanks from Faulkner to the crowd, noting that for anyone not able to attend tonight's sold-out gig, they will be back to do it all again in February.
Hoodoo Gurus - image © Bill Prendergast
"One for the ladies," is up next, and it was 'Miss Freelove ’69'. Guitarist Brad Shepherd was sounding extra clear on this piece, and indeed on the other hits, with an even more compressed sound coming out of his beautiful Gretsch guitar.
'1000 Miles Away' commenced with Faulkner's vocals over the top of his lovely shimmery guitar chords, and as he sang the lyric, "It can be as lonely at the top as the bottom of the corporate tree," I wondered whether there could be anything further from how Faulkner and the boys have lived their lives, and good luck to them – the music was a great escape for all of us for the evening!
Having being onstage for 90 minutes (exactly) they were off stage after this great song, only to come back for an encore. Faulkner noted that 'Be My Guru' has become somewhat of an anthem for them, and he still can't work out why they left it off 'Stoneage Romeos', rather releasing it as a B-side to one of the other hits.
Hoodoo Gurus - image © Bill Prendergast
Shepherd had all sorts of sounds coming out of his instrument in the middle of the song, and Faulkner was thanking the crowd, crew and Screamfeeder. 'What's My Scene' was the apparent wind up, Shepherd was playing beautifully, again with an even more compressed sound, partly reflecting the increased focus on engineering and recording for their later music compared to the incredibly raw sound from the earlier album.
At this stage I was listening out the front of the Miami Marketta (a brilliant place to see music as alluded to by Faulkner, and earlier by Screamfeeder), and had the surreal sight of the band playing at the end of the cavern-like hall, under a huge and impressive lightning show outside.
I had assumed this was the end of the show, and I think many in the crowd had the same expectation. 'What's My Scene' is what they often wind up their shows with, and it sounds exactly like the song on which to wind up a big show.
Hoodoo Gurus - image © Bill Prendergast
Yet, it instantly led into Nik Rieth's five-stroke drum beat intro for one further huge hit 'Wipeout', which took the show out. Shepherd was facing the amp again for the central solo, it was a very appropriate, and sped up, ending to a fantastic evening.
Looking back at the set list of my last Hoodoos concert from 1997, it has changed very little. If anything, it's just longer as the boys look to fit in even more of their incredible back catalogue. They seem to play music because they love it and love playing it to their fans, and seem happy to do so across Australia and other continents for years to come.
More photos from the concert.
