Things Of Stone And Wood- The Yearning Tour

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut album The Yearning, Things Of Stone And Wood have reunited for a tour around Australia, playing the album in full for the first time. Fran, Kelli and I arrived at the Northcote Social Club tonight for the last few songs of opening act Club Hoy, another early 1990s folk-rock band (although I wasn't aware of them as they were before my time in Australia).

This was the first of two shows in Melbourne, and it was great to see Greg Arnold, Tony Floyd and Michael Allen back together playing live again. For this tour they were joined by multi-instrumentalist James Black from Mondo Rock and Rockwiz fame to round out the sound. You forget how many great songs are on The Yearning, and the crowd was singing and jumping along to "Share This Wine," "Happy Birthday Helen" (which Greg had us sing for the real Helen in Switzerland as it was her birthday today), "Rock This Boat," "Single Perfect Raindrop," "Rain Fell Down" and "Barkly Street." I also loved hearing the slower tracks "In Our Home" and one of my all time favorites "Beg." At the start of the set Tony was doing little factual intros for each song, and I must say that Greg was in very fine voice throughout the show.

For the encore they branched out to their other releases and sang "Churchill's Black Dog" and "Wildflowers" off of Junk Theatre, "Blink" off the underrated Whirligig, and closed the night with "She Will Survive" with Greg on acoustic guitar and Tony and Michael singing harmonies together on the other mike. It's such a special opportunity to get to see them live these days (especially with Greg living overseas), so I was very appreciative of this tour happening.

Here's the video for "Happy Birthday Helen," which was the song that really launched their career:

Things Of Stone And Wood- 25th Anniversary Tour

It's been 25 years since Things of Stone and Wood formed so the original line up have reunited and hit the road for a small run of shows to celebrate their 25th anniversary.  Taking advantage of a special dual show ticket price, I have spent the last couple days at the Northcote Social Club for their first two sold out Melbourne shows- an evening performance on Saturday and matinee show today that included quite a few kids in the audience.

The opening act was singer-songwriter Carus Thompson who played a solo set on acoustic guitar and harmonica.  His songs told stories about current events, personal experiences and his travels.  For the song "I Found Love" about a prisoner he encountered at a jail house gig in Germany, he came into the audience to sing and got us all to join in on the chorus.  His set was engaging and entertaining.  The next act was Gentle Persuasion, another early 1990s Melbourne folk-rock band that was around at the same time as Things of Stone and Wood which has also come out of retirement for this tour.  I had never heard of them before as they disbanded before I came to Australia for the first time, but there were some definite fans in the audience who were singing along to the songs in their set.  I think they are the only opening band I have ever seen come back on for an encore!

Both Julie and I commented that the guys in Things of Stone and Wood really haven't aged that much over the years.  The set lists for both shows were pretty similar, with a strong focus on songs from their debut album The Yearning.  It was great to hear "Share This Wine," "Beg," "Rock This Boat," and beautiful acoustic versions of "Rain Fell Down" and "Single Perfect Raindrop."  As expected there was a huge audience sing along for "Happy Birthday Helen," and pogo jumping by both the band and crowd for "Barkly Street," with Greg Arnold and Mikey Allen joking that they were risking middle-aged soft tissue injuries to do it. 

Justin Brady had a very impressive two harmonica solo at the opening of "Hand Grenade," and at today's show Greg played a solo acoustic version of "The Yearling" (which he said he last played live in 1994).  The hour and a half sets also included my faves "She Will Survive," "Beautiful Wonderful" and "Wildflowers," although it was disappointing that there were no songs played from the album Whirligig.  It was great to hear some stories about the band's history in between songs, and for today's finale a couple members of Gentle Persuasion came on stage to sing "Roar" which was a song by their combined folk super-group back in the day called Four.  All in all these two shows were pretty special and I feel fortunate to have been able to see the original line up live and in such great form.

Music For A Cause

Tonight my friend Julie and I went to a show at the Corner Hotel in Richmond which was a benefit for the Edmund Rice Camps, which offer holiday programs for some of Victoria's most disadvantaged children. The artists performing included Deborah Conway, Rob Clarkson, Jaimi Faulkner, Things Of Stone and Wood (duo), and Paul Kelly. All the acts did about 30 minutes each and there was a lot of diversity between the sets.

Things of Stone and Wood were fantastic. It's been a while since I last saw them, and tonight it was just Greg Arnold and Justin Brady. They played a wide selection of songs, and I was amazed that the young crowd was so familiar with the older material. There was a big sing-along to several of the songs. I also learned that TOSAW had released an album a couple years ago, which I will need to go buy. I'm not sure what the other members of the band are up to- I did enjoy Michael Allen's solo albums (maybe there are more?).

Paul Kelly finished off the show. He is an amazing Australian singer/songwriter who has been recording for over 20 years. Paul's songs always tell an interesting story, often featuring things about Melbourne. It was great to see him perform solo in such a small venue with just his guitar and harmonica. Justin Brady came out and played violin on a couple songs as well. The crowd were really into his set and sang along nice and loud to most of the songs.