With a couple of shirkers at the last minute, Kristy, Gabbie, Wendy, Greg, Jess and Stephe managed to sit down for a bite to eat at the Annandale, before the main event - part of series celebrating the Annandale's birthday.
Support act Dead Letter Chorus was a bit of fun, with a fairly eclectic set, ranging for prog country to pretty solid rock and roll, with mysterious vocals from the only woman in the band who also played keyboard and guitar, and aggressive vocals from what appeared to be the lead singer, and a bunch of electric / acoustic action in between. Anyway, they were good and we'd probably go and check 'em out at a headlining gig some time.
[The Annandale was running RedBull snippets on a big TV inside the venue (produced by a mob called Venue TV or similar), which was interesting 'n all (lots of mountain bike, kayaking, running, flying action), but pretty solidly distracting to have on *during* a gig... Fortunately, someone convinced 'em to turn it off for Whitley.]
We had been forewarned that Whitley was stuffed to the gills with sudafed coming off a bad bout of the flu, but he pulled off a pretty impressive gig if that was the case. A lot 'heavier' or more 'rocky' than I'd have guessed from his radio play (or the Foxtel ad!), but very enjoyable in any case. The patter between songs was peculiar, to say the least - but always amusing... (the "C word", for example, in response to fairly regular "Lawrence" heckling, was actually probably well timed).
A bunch of good songs in a fairly short show, with a good mix of Whitley on his own and with the band. The energy of the band, and the variations on a theme were both excellent, and the covers of Dancing Queen (yes, he did it again) and a Bjork song in the encore, were fun but were also excellent pieces of performance in their own right.
The funniest part (funny=odd) for me was the last song of the main set, which was a massive intensity number building up to an almighty rocking crescendo... Up the back we were rocking away, barely able to stand still. Whereas out in front of us (95% of the audience), the sea of 'observers' were quietly watching away, with almost no movement at all - peculiar. I've not previously seen anything like it.
Having set the standard in the 'stunned crowd' approach, as Whitley left the stage at the end of the set he was met with polite clapping dissipating into silence - and no call for an encore. After an uncomfortable period (with Aunt Wendy up beside us trying her best to make up for an entire room of stunned mullets), the band started a slow clap from the side, which eventually got some traction with the crowd, and Whitley was back for two good encores - and then off to bed for some well earned rest (he's apparently off for about 12 months pulling together a new album, with just a couple of festivals along the way). We briefly spoke to him after the event, and he looked shattered, and certainly a man in need of some "get well" rest!
Curiouser, and curiouser...
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