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.