Robert Forster, formerly of the Go Betweens, has had a pretty impressive solo career since the group broke up after the death of Grant McLennan in 2006. His albums have all been great, I can’t emphasise that enough. The guy is surely one of our best songwriters. And he seems to know how to create just the right arrangements for his songs. There never seems to be an instrument or vocal or note out of place. It’s all there, razor sharp and clean, and often wrapped around the most droll and surprising lyrics. It’s often in the titles: I Don’t Do Drugs, I Do Time; There’s a Reason to Live; I Love Myself and I Always Have.
I last saw him around 2017 when he was still promoting his Songs To Play album, and he also had recently released his amazing book, Grant and I. This was at the Gasometer in Collingwood. A good gig, and I got him to sign my copy of the book and had a little chat with him. This time around he was promoting his The Candle and the Flame album and doing two concerts over two days at the Brunswick Ballroom. He played 20 songs the first night, then another different 20 the next night. It was an interesting concept. Gave lots of scope for lots of interesting songs, either from his solo career or with the Go Betweens. What would he play?
I took the train in on the Friday night for the first gig. Big mistake. It wasn’t so bad going in, but coming home I discovered the trains weren’t running on my line after 10pm and I had to take a bus home. What a drag. Anyway, I hadn’t been to the Ballroom before. I think it used to be called the Crystal Ballroom. It was upstairs, basically a big chandelier-hanging ballroom with an impressive staircase down which the artists strolled onto the stage. The floor was split in half along the length of the room, one half accommodating tables and chairs for the diners, the other half giving room for us standing punters. I had a great position standing near the stage by the edge of the diners with an unobstructed view.
Support act for this night, Dan Kelly, played a keyboard and sang a number of songs on the theme of apocalypse. In between songs he kept up a rapid commentary on his adventurous life and the people he’s known. Was a bit of a raconteur, old Dan, and this kept things interesting. After his set I went downstairs to the merch stand and bought a t-shirt. It was blue with the logo I Don’t Do Drugs, I Do Time on it. A great idea for a tour t-shirt: don’t bother with naming the artist, just include one of his quirky song titles.
When Robert appeared at the top of the stairs for his entrance a big shout went up, as I’m sure it always does for artists at this venue. But it seemed a fittingly grand and pompous entrance in keeping with his showmanship, though Robert came down the stairs humbly enough. Impeccably dressed in jacket and dark blue shirt, he seemed concerned the venue lights weren’t low enough, everything was too bright – though he assured the crowd this wasn’t because he didn’t want to see us and that we ‘look beautiful’. With guitar in hand he proceeded to entertain us hugely with his (not quite) one man show. Unlike so many of his peers, his voice is still strong and his guitar playing impeccable. But it was all about the songs. This is what he played for the first night, in order:
Always, Let Me Imagine You, Baby Stones, Love Is a Sign, People Say, When I Was a Young Man, I Can Do, Spirit, 121, When She Sang About Angels, 2541 (Grant Hart cover), Is This What You Call Change, Bow Down, Too Much of One Thing, Rock and Roll Friend, Tender Years, He Lives My Life, Spring Rain, German Farmhouse, Surfing Magazines.
He Lives My Life is a key song in Robert’s canon – at least for me it is, and I’m glad he played it. I’ll refer back to it later. He introduced People Say, the second Go Betweens single, as a song that was linked thematically to the next one, When I Was a Young Man, the final song off The Candle and the Flame. The second is about being twenty-one, and the first, I guess, was written when he was twenty-one. It’s about Lindy Morrison, the Go Betweens’ drummer, whom Robert was involved with in the early days. There’s a line in the original that goes, ‘Pack your bags and your drums, I’m gonna take you till the kingdom comes’. Robert seemed to disown that in later renditions of the song. He changed the line to ‘Pack your bags and your saxophone, I’m gonna take you to Rome’. He actually went back to the original line for this performance, which pleased me greatly.
When I Was a Young Man is an interesting song. Looking back at being twenty-one, Rob mentions his ‘older brothers’ as positive influences, David and Lou. His book Grant and I tells me he has one younger brother, Tony. No David or Lou mentioned. So I’m guessing this is a fabulous fabrication. I think he means David Bowie and Lou Reed, but I could be wrong. Later in the song he mentions ‘a new David and there was Tom’. Tom is surely Tom Verlaine of Television, who gets a mention in When She Sang About Angels. Not sure who this other David could be (David Ackles?). I love how Robert self mythologises his life and mixes things up.
I really liked the song 2541 and didn’t realise it was a cover. I kept wondering, what album was that from, it sounded so familiar. Later, I looked at my copy of his I Had a New York Girlfriend album, the covers album, and there it was. It’s not an album I’ve played much. I remembered it had Frisco Depot, which appeared on Intermission, and he did a great Monkees cover there, Look Out (here comes tomorrow) (a song I’ve covered/used too). But I’d forgotten 2541 was there and that it was so good. I must give the album another listen, especially that song!
When he got to I Can Do he introduced bassist with the Mark 2 Go Betweens, Adele Pickvance, whose presence gave the gig a real lift. She left after a few more songs then came back for the last few songs. When Robert started straight in to Spring Rain the howl of recognition from the crowd caused him to stop in embarrassment. It was actually good to see him so affected. Yes, Rob, we all know that song and we love it. Should’ve been a big hit. There was more crowd participation with the last song, Surfing Magazines. We all joined in with the La da la da la da-a. Near the end Robert started shouting names of famous surfing beaches, like Bells. He encouraged us to add more, and we did. It was a great way to end the gig. On a high, you might say.
Before he left he mentioned he was going to be signing things downstairs at the merch table. I thought about getting my t-shirt signed. It would be good to have Robert’s signature just below the song quote to kind of finish it off. But it seemed silly getting something signed that would just get faded in the wash, so I didn’t stick around. Wish I did (as you’ll see).
For the second gig I drove in. Found a parking spot around the corner at the local Woollies and that was it. Easy. At the ballroom I slid myself into a similar spot to last night – in fact I was even closer to the action. Opening act this time was a woman called Amaya Laucirica. I didn’t know her, but I checked out her set. She was playing guitar mostly to some triggered backing tracks. There was one song, I wish I could remember the name of it, that I thought was pretty good. Maybe it was More Than This, the song of her’s that’s got the most hits on Spotify? It was a nice set, nothing special though (at least on this initial hearing). It’s always good to see someone ‘new’.
Robert’s second set was of course more of the same, but not the same. Adele was back, some of the same faces were in the crowd (including me, wearing my I Don’t Do Drugs, I Do Time t-shirt!) and Rob was wearing another blue shirt. Here’s the second night setlist:
Inferno, Was There Anything I Could Do, I Love Myself and I Always Have, Part Company, Darlinghurst Nights, The Morning, Born To a Family, Head Full of Steam, I’ll Jump, Clouds, Don’t Touch Anything, She’s a Fighter, Don’t Let Him Come Back, Life Has Turned a Page, Dive For Your Memory, I Don’t Do Drugs I Do Time, Remain, One Bird in the Sky, The Statue, Here Comes a City, Surfing Magazines.
Note how there’s actually 21 songs, including Surfing Magazines, which he played on the first night. This was apparently an off-the-cuff decision by Rob to include it because someone in the crowd asked for it. I guess knowing how well it went down on the first night, he figured it would be a good finisher. Was There Anything I Could Do was a surprising inclusion as I think it’s mostly a Grant song. I guess Rob really likes it. Someone also asked for Cattle and Cain, but Rob begged off, saying he wasn’t capable of playing it properly.
I was so pleased he did Part Company, one of my very favourites of his, and another key song for me. He coupled it with Darlinghurst Nights, which is a callback to the times when he wrote Part Company, much like the double of People Say and When I Was a Young Man from the previous night. Part Company is one of those Gobs songs that, like Grant’s Bye Bye Pride, really intersects with some dramatic, personal moments in my life. ‘That’s her handwriting. That’s the way she writes.’ And ‘Before we’d met I hadn’t wiped my feet, seen myself naked or – Part Company’. Like the song I referred to earlier, it’s like they’ve both been living my life. Yeah. I can’t say how much I actually idolize those two guys.
Rob’s idea of encoring with Surfing Magazines didn’t really pay off. The crowd weren’t as boisterous as the night before and he had to work hard to get them going. They didn’t even yell out any surfing spots like they did before. I did my bit with the Da da’s, but not many others did. It made for a slightly downbeat ending to what had been a memorable couple of nights. And to cap that off, Rob didn’t do a post-gig signing. This was disappointing because I had decided I really wanted him to sign my shirt. I figured a texta would give an imprint that would be hard to get off. But it was not to be. Incidentally, when he did I Don’t Do Drugs, I Do Time I’m pretty sure he saw me in my t-shirt. By the expression on his face it looked like he was having a surreal moment (‘here I am singing this song and that guy over there’s got a t-shirt with the song title on it’). I thought he might call me out after the song, but he didn’t.
I had imagined the conversation I would have with Rob while he signed my shirt. I was going to ask him, ‘Hey Rob, who’s the best songwriter in Australia? Do you have any thoughts on that?’ He’d reply, ‘I do, actually. I’d say Nick Cave.’
Me: ‘Good Choice. What about Paul Kelly?’
Rob: ‘Oh, him too, I guess.’
Me: ‘There’s someone else I can think of who’s up there with that company.’
Rob: ‘Yeah? Who would that be?’
Me: ‘Ah, he’s a guy called Robert Forster. He’s pretty good. You should check him out.’
(Rob smiles and holds out his fist for a fist bump. I oblige.)
Me: ‘Keep on rockin’, Rob. Keep on rockin’…’