While they may hail from just across the ditch, it’d been 25 years since Dunedin’s Straitjacket Fits had taken to a stage on these shores.
Frontman Shayne Carter’s post-Fits, more electronic project Dimmer had visited in that time, but following the 1994 Big Day Out, the Flying Nun indie rockers went on indefinite hiatus. And the death of bassist David Wood in 2010 made any extensive reunion seem unlikely.
Fast-forward to 2018, Carter and other original members John Collie and Mark Petersen, along with Dimmer bassist Vaughan Williams, gathered to pay tribute to the closing Auckland venue, the iconic King’s Arms, and the seeds were sewn for a full Straitjacket Fits reunion – one that brought them to Australia to play two special shows, in Melbourne and Sydney, supported by Dimmer, of course.
Not surprisingly, the main band room at The Corner Hotel (6 September) was abuzz with expectation from a crowd that largely looked like it had been onboard since the band's mid '80s inception. There was, however, some last-minute arrivals helped along by the traffic jam outside as the gig coincided with AFL finals and the end of a match at the MCG.
Inside, you’d never guessed the city was in the grip of footy fever, with the loud, raucous Fits show – with the addition of Dimmer members Vaughan and James Duncan – delivering a cacophony of dark, driving guitar rock pierced by Carter’s famed commanding delivery.
And with plenty of classics for fans to hear, there were no shortage of highlights: the heralded ‘She Speeds’ from 1987 debut EP ‘Life In One Chord’, the raucous ‘Dialling A Prayer’ from first LP ‘Hail’, ‘Bad Note For A Heart’ from the band's 1990 sophomore set ‘Melt’ – a record that Carter spruiked with good humour regarding its availability on vinyl at the merch desk – and plenty from the third album, 1993’s ‘Blow’, including ‘Train’, ‘Done’ and perhaps the night’s standout, the smouldering dark intensity of ‘Burn It Up’.
Carter’s not typically a frontman for excessive and elaborate banter, but he didn’t need to do a whole lot to fill the space between songs, with the entire audience lapping up every turn.
And while it was always going to feature, he humoured the crowd who had plenty of songs to call out, picking out one shouted suggestion of catchy, dreamy downtempo single ‘If I Were You’.
While there were some fan-fave omissions – like ‘Blow’’s first single ‘Cat Inna Can’, and, of course, ‘Down In Splendour’ and ‘Sparkle That Shines’, two stylistically very different tunes originally voiced by now-departed member Andrew Brough – it was hard to fault the flow of the set and the good vibes spreading from stage to the back of the room.
And, impressively, Carter not only showed once again he’s one of New Zealand’s great performers but how well the Straitjacket Fits catalogue has stood the test of time – something synonymous with the Flying Nun catalogue.
