Tex Perkins and the Dark Horses at the Hopetoun Hotel, Surry Hills, 25 Jan
How long has it been since my last afternoon pub gig? So long I can’t remember who it was, where it was or when it was, confirming I guess, Tex Perkins’ opening remark: “Welcome to everybody too old and uncool to be at the Big Day Out.”
If Tex was addressing that at himself as well as his audience he would only have been half right, old maybe but never uncool. In fact, Tex Perkins, Rock God, is the epitomy of cool. The “Perkettes” were hanging on his every move.
Tex may not rock out as in the past with bands such as The Beasts of Bourbon and The Cruel Sea, but the new model mellow Tex suited this Sydney afternoon to a tee. ( A check of his website reveals other lesser known ventures such as The Snot Collection, Toilet Duck and The Poofters.)
There were several priceless moments, as when his main guitarist and accompanist, whose name eluded me, hit a bum note early on. Trying to continue with his solo, a big hand appeared across the front of his guitar, cutting him dead.
“Quit while you’re ahead,” said Tex.
Later said guitarist did a couple of songs solo, western style, that almost stole the show. One in particular received a huge response, a plaintive number called “I miss your big white bum”. This has to go down as one of the country classics, right up there with “Drop kick me Jesus through the goalposts of life.”
Then there were the unlikely covers, numbers such as The First Cut is the Deepest. It takes a lot of confidence, and a good dollop of irony, to pull those ones off.
Really, there can be few better ways to spend a day than being indoors, curtains drawn, listening to great music in a packed hotel as the sun burns down outside. Fuck the beach!