Kris Schroeder- The Drunken Poet

In order to make up for missing The Basics post-Christmas show at the Corner Hotel Mary and I made our way down to The Drunken Poet in West Melbourne this evening to catch Kris Schroeder play two sets. He started off with a cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and managed to lose the amplifier plug into his guitar mid-song. After quickly getting a second microphone set up the show continued. It was an epic mix of covers and original tunes. The new Basics tracks sounded really good: "What Ever Happened To The Working Class," "Tunaomba Saidia," "The Lucky Country," and "To Think Of You." It was also very interesting to hear Kris sing lead on "So Hard For You" instead of Wally.

Kris played a lot of new and interesting covers across the two sets as well, including Cold Chisel's "Cheap Wine," "After The Gold Rush" and "Old Man" by Neil Young, "Come Together" by The Beatles and "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison. The most anticipated cover though had to be Kris finally playing his interpretation of Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald singing "What A Fool Believes." Things got very entertaining towards the end of the second set when during The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" an older gentleman decided to join in by playing some maracas he brought along with him (Kris even played a couple bars of "I Go To Rio" in the middle). As usual there were also a heap of Crowded House tracks played throughout: "Nails In My Feet," "Four Seasons In One Day," "Fall At Your Feet" and "Better Be Home Soon," which was the last song for the evening. Both Mary and I really enjoyed the extended second set and Kris may have continued to play even longer had he not broken another guitar string.

Kris Schroeder- Retreat Hotel Residency Week 3

Last night was week three of Kris Schroeder's residency at the Retreat Hotel in Brunswick.  The opening act this week was David Bramble, an occasional live contributor to The Basics.  He played solo on acoustic guitar as well as a bit of harmonica on a couple songs.  I thought he sounded good and I really enjoyed the songs which were written on a recent trip to the USA and Nashville due to their amusing story lines and country vibes.

It was a bit more packed this week as Kris played his somewhat loose set.  He has not had the best of weeks after his appearance on the Vote For Me! State Election: The Parties Bring It! panel at the Face The Music conference on Friday didn't go to plan and resulted in this opinion piece being published in theMusic.com.au.  He made references to it during the evening but didn't really go into full detail.  The set list was pretty similar to last week's show.  Highlights were the new Basics songs "To Think Of You," "Tunaomba Saidia," "What Ever Happened To The Working Class" and "Every Part Of Me," which he played solo for the first time.  We got a couple solo EP songs as well as the Keep Your Friends Close album tracks "All Or Nothing," "Keep The Door Open" and an audience request for "What Do You See In Me?"  While he once again did covers of Neil Young and Yusuf Islam, unfortunately we did not get to hear his interpretation of Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald doing "What A Fool Believes" as was promised last week.  Kris did admit this omission may add to the number of people who currently hate him.  Next week is the last week of the residency so if you are free get on down to the Retreat!

Kris Schroeder- Retreat Hotel Residency Week 2

In Kris Schroeder's seeming quest to play at every venue in Brunswick he has organised a November residency at the Retreat Hotel on Wednesday nights.  This was the second week, and opening up proceedings was Louis Spoils (aka Jake Rush).  Mary and I arrived toward the end of his set and got to hear the last few songs he played, which sounded good.

It was a relaxed and casual Kris in shorts and sandals this week as he was plugged in on a borrowed electric guitar for his set.  Starting with "All Or Nothing" he played a mix of old and new tracks by The Basics.  I am still really loving the new stuff: "What Ever Happened To The Working Class," "To Think Of You" and "Tunaomba Saidia," which features on the newly released EP The Lucky Country.  An audience request for "Feels Like Love" was quite amusing as Kris alternated between playing the guitar and bass parts of the song to try and get through it.  He also played the solo tracks "I Don't Feel Safe" (Mary's favorite) and "Walk Beside White."  In addition, there were a few covers sprinkled throughout the set, including Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens) "Father and Son" and songs by guys named Neil: Neil Young's "After The Gold Rush" and "Out On The Weekend," and Neil Finn/Crowded House's "Not The Girl You Think You Are" and "Four Seasons In One Day," which closed the evening.  Kris is working on some Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald material for next week (we got a snippet of "What A Fool Believes") so that should be reason enough to come along.

Here's a video shot at Kris' Union Hotel gig a couple weeks ago of him singing "Tunaomba Saidia"

Kris Schroeder- The Union Hotel Brunswick

In what's becoming a bit of a trend, I spent another Sunday afternoon seeing Kris Schroeder play live, this week at The Union Hotel Brunswick.  It's hard for me not to go when he is playing at venues so close to home.  The hour long acoustic set was similar to last week with a mix of solo and Basics songs.  We were treated to three tracks off his solo EP Patience In The Face Of Control: "I Don't Feel Safe," "Worried Man" and "Walk Beside White."  The new Basics songs played included "Whatever Happened To The Working Class," "Tunaomba Saidia," "To Think Of You" and his first solo attempt at the upcoming single "The Lucky Country."  I thought Kris sounded really good this week and I was glad he did older faves "All Or Nothing" and "What Do You See In Me?" again.  Of course it wouldn't be a true Kris/Basics show without covers, and we got to hear Neil Young's "Out On The Weekend" and Crowded House's "Fall At Your Feet," which was the last song for the afternoon.  Fingers crossed that The Basics Rock'n'Roll Party (BRRP) gets enough members signed up with the Victorian Electoral Commission this week to be able to run in the November state election (and the looming deadline of the caretaker period will be absorbing a lot of time for me at work!).

Kris Schroeder- Victoria Hotel

Continuing my gigs in Brunswick weekend I headed over to the Victoria Hotel this afternoon to see Kris Schroeder from The Basics play two solo sets on acoustic guitar in the beer garden.  Kris chose a wide selection of songs, including a couple solo tracks and some of the newer Basics material such as "Tunaomba Saidia," "Whatever Happened To The Working Class" and "To Think Of You."  Kris was in good spirits as he whipped through his set list in front of the small crowd, even though some weren't really paying attention.  Melbourne may be a music town but audience chatter when musicians are playing is a continuous and annoying problem.

Having two sets allowed for some rarely played Basics songs to make an appearance, including "Memory Lane," "Feels Like Love," "I Don't Need Another," and a selection of tracks off the Keep Your Friends Close album: "Keep The Door Open," "The Day Mairead Goes Away," "What Do You See In Me?" and "All Or Nothing."  To finish things off we were treated to covers of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and Crowded House's "Better Be Home Soon."  Kris says he will be playing a number of solo shows in the coming weeks around Brunswick so I look forward to catching him again very soon!