Eternal Nightcap
25th Anniversary at The Gov
By James Murphy
A quarter of a century and two days after the release of their generation defining release, Eternal Nightcap, Tim Freedman and the current incarnation of The Whitlams return to The Gov for approximately the 27th occasion. While Freedman has turned his onstage red wine into water, his messianic stage charisma remains untarnished by the years. He remains, though, the contrarian, re-arranging Nightcaps’ song order and making jokes about the Queen. Audiences know him well enough now, though, to expect nothing less.
The Whitlams took to The Gov stage in a smoke lit haze. Freedman’s iconic opening chord from the Triple J Hottest 100 Number One, ‘No Aphrodisiac’, rang out, and the four-piece band remained concealed by the smog, with only wisps of Freedman’s hair and his lanky silhouette visible for the entirety of the track which, by modern cancel culture standards, is risque. Freedman, throughout the evening’s set, clarified his lyrics, lest he be cancelled. When, on ‘Melbourne’, he advised a love interest to take a day off school, he informed the crowd that he meant law school, which he attended briefly; on ‘I Make Hamburgers’, he questioned whether he could still teach the burger joint customers how to be dirty girls. Eternal Nightcap was a Triple Platinum album that defined a different time; it soundtracked the final years of high school or the first years of uni, first loves or first heartbreaks. The trio of Charlie songs, inspired by the suicide of Whitlams’ founding member Stevie Plunder, were raw and honest R U OK anthems that were decades ahead of their time.
In the ‘No Aphrodisiac’ afterglow, Charlie No 1, originally positioned at track 11, was relocated, which ensured that Charlie No 1, 2 and 3 were played in chronological order, which made sense. The consequence of this decision, though, was that the entire album’s playlist was jumbled, which was a departure from the traditional 25th anniversary album show. For albums like Nightcap, that sequence of songs seeps into the bones with decades of repeated plays and one of the joys is seeing that faithfully reproduced on stage. Pandering to the nostalgia crowd, though, was not something that Freedman necessarily relished. Backed by Jack Housden on guitar, Terepai Richmond on drums and new member, Ian Peres, on bass, the band has never sounded better live and with a 2022 release, Sancho, it was apparent that this new material is where Freedman’s heart is, and three tracks, ‘Nobody Knows I Love You’, ‘In The Last Life’ and ‘Man About A Dog’ made it into the post Nightcap set list, along with ‘Gough’, ‘Thank You (For Loving Me At My Worst), ‘Fall For You’, ‘Keep The Light On’, ‘I Will Not Go Quietly’ and, perhaps as a nod to the passing of the Queen, ‘Royal in the Afternoon’ to end the night.
Towards the close of proceedings, a medical emergency involving an older crowd member interrupted proceedings, but she was kindly cared for by a nurse in the audience. Freedman, prior to this, joked that 73 percent of the audience, the box office informed him, was 40 years or older. Ageing isn’t all bad though. Nightcap’s break-up songs, he said, reflected how dramatic such occurrences were in your 20s. In your 40s, you can sing along to the songs of your youth, shout out how “all your friends are fuck ups, but they’re fun to have around” with your arms around those that made it through alongside you and reflect on the tunes that shaped your life. There’s still time to listen to new releases, though, starting with The Whitlams’ Sancho. Here’s to another 25 years.
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