The Living End- Twangin' At Twilight

The Living End are back together in Australia for their Staring Down The Highway regional tour, but to kick things off they are playing a few Zoo Twilights shows in Melbourne and Sydney. Billed as Twangin' At Twilight, tonight was the first of two nights at Melbourne Zoo. Danny and I found a spot on the lawn and had some Mr Burger for dinner as Gabriella Cohen and her band played a bluesy/indie set of music.

The Living End began the evening with an acoustic set, which included members of The String Sirens providing backing string arrangements to many of the songs. They played stripped back versions of "Moment In The Sun," "Raise The Alarm," "For Another Day" and a reggae version of "West End Riot." They also did covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Down On The Corner" and The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby."

After a short break the electric version of the set started as Chris invited everyone to stand up for the rest of the show. Off their latest album Shift they played "Monkey," "Staring Down The Barrel" and "Keep On Running" with The String Sirens. We also got the classics "Second Solution," "Roll On," "All Torn Down," and "Who's Gonna Save Us?" Highlights of the night for me were an amazing version of "How Do We Know?" with The String Sirens, and someone throwing a bra on stage during "Hold Up," which Andy proceeded to put on his head after the song (and then promptly took off when Chris reminded him that his daughter was in the audience).

For each of the Zoo Twilights shows the band have a special guest on the bill, and we were lucky to have Dan Sultan grace the stage for the Melbourne dates. They played Dan's song "Fear Of Flying," and then Dan sang lead on The Living End track "White Noise." Together they did a cover of Bill Haley's "Rock The Joint" accompanied by a couple friends of Scott on trumpet and saxophone. To finish off the night they ripped through "Prisoner of Society," which had everyone singing along. This was such a special and unique show and probably the first and last time I will ever see The Living End while standing barefoot on a picnic blanket.

Oh Mercy- The Gasometer Hotel

As part of the "Collingwood Open" open-air series the Gasometer Hotel is hosting musical acts through February with the roof to the bandroom open. Tonight was Melbourne's own Oh Mercy in their first show since winning the 2015 ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album for When We Talk About Love.

I arrived about half way through the opening act Gabriella Cohen, who played a solo set on electric guitar and sounded good. Mary then joined me before The Ocean Party took the stage. They are probably Melbourne's most prolific band, having released an album each year since 2011 and recently putting out the hilariously titled EP Mess & Noise Critics Poll 2015. It was good to see them live again (and once again supporting Oh Mercy) but unfortunately the sound mix was off for most of their set, particularly around being able to hear the keyboards and vocals. They played some new songs along with the album tracks "Guess Work, "Greedy," "Light Weight" (which featured Zac dancing around a bit on the floor as part of a bet), and one of my favorites "Head Down" to finish the set.

It was a full band show for Oh Mercy tonight and they opened with "Can't You Hear My Body (Calling Out To You)." Alex was channelling the Deep Heat era in his very shiny pink lame button down shirt. The set list was mainly songs off When We Talk About Love, with highlights being "Without You," "All Roads Lead To You," a solo version of "Lady Eucalyptus," "Sandy" and "Let Me Be Him." I thought the band sounded good and this was the first show for me where they've really gelled with the songs and made them their own. Tracks from previous albums were also played, including "Keith St." "Drums" (complete with a Burt Bacharach style opening verse), "Deep Heat" and "Lay Everything On Me." Alex said he is currently recording new songs in his bedroom and played "Get On." The band once again did a cover of The Waterboys' "The Whole Of The Moon" and finished the night with "My Man." It was good to see Alex feeling well and being in a more positive head space these days. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long to hear some more of these new tracks he is working on.