RADIO BIRDMAN
Saturday, June 1 2002
@ The Music House, Adelaide

Words and Pictures: JOHN McPHARLIN

Despite it having been close to the ultimate rock'n'roll gig, I only gave last night's Melbourne show 4.9 Rolling Rocks so that I'd still have somewhere to go tonight, ratings wise. In reality there was no more than the width of bee's dick in difference between the last three shows of the tour (e.g. Melbourne last night, tonight in Adelaide and the final show back in Sydney - which I've already seen as I write this, since I couldn't keep up the pace of trying to knock out each review straight after the show, before I went to the next show). Of those three final shows however, this one in Adelaide was probably the pinnacle.

The set was identical to the previous night (at least according to the setlist I got from Trev the sound man after the show - you don't think he could have fobbed me off with an old one, do ya?), the band sounded precision perfect (even if one or more members are in the habit of complaining after each gig about missing a cue or hitting a wrong note that only they seem to have noticed) and the crowd was completely into it, although without going totally berserk as they did in Melbourne, but that's always been a complaint about Adelaide audiences - that they have a good time without feeling an overwhelming need to piss in the pocket of the punter next to them. Sometimes this leads less self-assured bands to think that they're not going down all that well, when in reality (provided they're doing it right), they are going down a treat; it's just that Adelaide audiences like to absorb every moment of the show when a band has taken the trouble to make the trek there.

Arriving from Melbourne a bit after lunchtime, I was picked up from the airport by my brother and we went back to his place to dump my baggage. I took the opportunity to ring my sister to see if she was going to the show as well, since she hadn't responded to my email, but she said she'd been a bit disappointed by their Big Day Out performance on the last reunion tour and couldn't work up the enthusiasm or energy to organise a baby sitter for the sprogs and get herself into town. All of which was a great pity, since this was the best show of the tour and my sister was the first Birdman fan in our family ("Radios Appear" seemed welded to the turntable in her room for months after it came out). I still remember the day she went to the extent of painting a huge Birdman symbol on her brand new bedroom blind. Or rather, I remember the day when our mother found out that the brand new bedroom blind had been Birdmanized; to borrow a phrase from the bible, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Peter and I got to the venue pretty early, as he'd booked by phone and had to pick up his ticket from the box office and I was keen to partake of the local support, who I'd never heard of. Unfortunately not all new experiences are enjoyable ones, so we retired to the bar (which was far more crowded than the performance area at that point in the proceedings). The Music House layout consists of two large rooms, separated by a couple of doorless archways. This led me to wonder how the maximum capacity of the venue was determined - if they simply did a calculation based on the combined floor space of the two rooms, without taking into account the fact that everyone was going to want to be in one particular room while the band was playing, then it was going to be... cosy.

Tonight's audience seemed to be the widest cross section yet, in terms of both age and appearance, with every flavour represented from lumberjack shirted bogans and the usual broad sampling of Birdman tee shirts, ancient and modern, to full goth regalia and spikey haired punks (like Radio Birdman were punk, right? I mean they were from around the same time and anyway it says so in lots of poorly researched articles, doesn't it?). There was also a smattering of familiar faces, but only belonging to the roving overseas contingent and a few interstaters like Trashcan Betty, down for the weekend from Brisbane, and someone from Melbourne whose name I've forgotten (sorry mate).

On the local front, there wasn't anyone I recognized, although one woman did come up to me and claim that she remembered me from some gigs in the '70s, before thrusting a handful of rolled up posters into my face and demanding that I take them backstage to get them signed by the band (I declined). Even though she did now have a few more miles on the clock, if we really had known each other back then, somehow I suspect I would have remembered her, for her attitude if not for her looks.

However all of the preceding paled into insignificance once the Birdmen took flight. If the pattern of these shows has been development followed by consolidation, then this was the ultimate consolidation. The sound was terrific, clear and crisp (they used the same soundman for the whole tour, so he did an astounding job coming to grips with a new mixing desk and differing room characteristics for almost every show) and the band was razor sharp - in looks as well as sound, with everyone dressed in the darker shades of black and only the Lipstick Killers logo on Jim's tee shirt and a hint of white tee peaking out of the neck of Deniz's shirt providing the sole points of respite.

Still only the one big banner on the stage behind them (and even that would be gone on the following evening), but by now all they needed to mark out their territory was their music. And their music was glorious; maybe not breaking any new ground this evening, but distilling out the best version so far of each song into a set that was all highlights.

No show is perfect, but to my ears this one came about as close as is humanly possible. If there's a live album coming out of this tour, then I'd be amazed if the bulk of it doesn't come from this show. In the meantime, I know I shouldn't say this, but if anyone happens to have made a personal tape of this show, then could we talk...?

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