Baby Animals & Killing Heidi
The Gov, Saturday 18thMay 2019
(Reviewed by John Glennie)
Two great Australian bands who both put on a great evening of rock. Killing Heidi hail from Violet Town in country Victoria and kicked the night off. I am not overly familiar with much of their music so did not recognise many of the early songs in their set. That aside I did enjoy most of them, including I Am, Want Everythingand Kettle. However, they really hit their straps halfway through and treated us to tracks from their Reflector album (which I am familiar with!).
The crowd went wild when they played their classic hit Mascarawhich really highlighted Ella Hooper’s outstanding voice – and was the highlight for me. Ella then informed us of one of her iconic Aussie bands and she regretted not having the opportunity to perform with them. It would have been great, given her version of Divinyl’s Boys in Town,which would have made Chrissie Amphlett proud!
Another couple of great tracks followed with Superman – Supergirland Real Peoplebefore finishing their set with another classic Weir– with the enthusiastic crowd joining in for most of it! A great gig to get the sellout crowd moving.
Baby Animals hit the stage and it was obvious from the outset that this gig was going to be very (and unnecessarily) … LOUD! After the first couple of tracks – of which One Wordwas one of my faves for the night – my friend and I bought some earplugs from the bar so our ears wouldn’t be ringing for the next 3 days. My friend is a guitarist and he cannot fathom why the volume has to be so high that it is distorted.
Suze DeMarchi’s voice is always powerful and outstanding, and I was surprised when she said she was suffering from a cold and she would hunt down any critics who slammed her voice. Definitely not me Suze – couldn’t fault it, unless that was due to the intense volume. Midway through the set she apologised for the “sh*t sound – and sound is everything” – which brought cheers from the crowd.
This concert tour is celebrating 30 years in the industry and they played a lot of their hits from those years. After Emailand Painless, a change of pace with Break My Heart. After a few tracks I didn’t know we had the only two songs from Shaved and Dangerous: Buputaand Backbone. Dave Leslie’s expertise and versatility on guitar were evident throughout the night – a very polished performer.
Baby Animals finished the set with Hot Air Balloon, One Too Manyand Early Warning. After a very brief break they returned for the encore with Impossibleand Under Your Skin. Of course they left one of the best for last with a rollicking version of Ain’t Gonna Get– with a jumping, dancing and singing crowd providing most of the vocals.
Overall a great night of entertainment in one of Adelaide’s best live music venues. Just a shame that it has to be spoilt by ear-splitting volume, when it would have sounded a whole lot better and less distorted at the same volume as Killing Heidi’s gig.
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