My mate Paul sent me a text about an upcoming concert at the Brunswick Ballroom, and would I want to go? It was for a concert Steve Kilbey of the Church was performing, though not with the Church but with his old side project, Jack Frost. This was a group (or duo) he conjured up back in the day with Grant McLennan of the Go Betweens. Grant died in 2006, so this was a sort of tribute gig featuring a Grant stand-in and the promise of copies of the newly released JF compilation album. I sent back a text saying yeah, definitely. Then I waited, but he didn’t get back to me. I sent him another when I bought my ticket for the gig, and asked had he bought his yet? Again, he didn’t get back to me. The day of the concert came and I sent him one last text wondering if he was coming or not. No answer. He clearly wasn’t going. You may ask, why the fuck did he even bother with that first text? And what the fuck? So, anyway, I went to the gig on my own and managed to have a good time. Here’s how it went.
It seemed quite fitting that this gig had a bit of a Go Betweens connection to it, because the last time I went to the Brunswick Ballroom it was to see Robert Forster do a solo gig. I went upstairs to the Ballroom, presented my ticket, bought a beer, and pushed past the full crowd to the outside street balcony to enjoy my beer and some fresh air before Steve and gang came on. The only person out there besides me was a guy who was having a smoke. We got to chatting about the gig. I told him about how I’d seen Robert previously and didn’t know much about Steve’s Jack Frost stuff but was here mainly for the Grant connection. The guy readily agreed this was why he was here too.
Back inside the venue, Steve and his crew made their grand entrance down the Ballroom’s spiffy staircase. He’s older now, and the beard is greyer, but he still exudes that rock star charisma that can’t be taught. It seems Steve’s plan was to play the entire first Jack Frost album in sequence. Thus the first number was Every Hour God Sends. I was not familiar with anything on the album, but I will say here that just about everything they played from this point on sounded pretty damn good and inspired me to buy the album. After this first track Steve did a wonderful monologue about the first time he met Grant McLennan. It was in New York and he somehow spied three of the members of the Go Betweens (namely, Grant, Robert and Amanda Brown) playing some impromptu gig on a table in a café. They were ‘cool as fuck’. At the end of it, having spotted him, Grant got down and started chatting to Steve. From there plans were speedily made to ‘do something’, which became Jack Frost.
I wish I’d known Steve was going to pepper the pauses between songs with these informative and entertaining stories about Grant, because I would have recorded all of them. As it was, I started recording the concert straight after this first monologue. I figured I would put them up here on this page, which is what I have done. I have them all here, except that first one. Have a listen and enjoy!
Civil War Lament intro
Geneva 4AM intro
Trapeze Boy intro
I Thought That I Was Over You intro
Sexy Disco Song Threshold intro
Number Eleven intro
Even As We Speak intro
Everything Takes Forever intro
After the first half of Jack Frost songs, there was an intermission, during which I went downstairs and bought a copy of the new compilation album. Steve wasn’t there to sign, nor did he hang around after the gig to do signings, but it turned out my copy was already signed. Great! For the second half of the show he did a ‘greatest hits’ selection of his Church songs and some of Grant’s songs. This was something he said Grant would’ve hated, but I don’t know. I suspect Grant would’ve seen the sense in doing this here at this time. Steve did most of the Church hits, including Metropolis, Almost With You and Under the Milky Way, with an encore of Unguarded Moment. I wish he’d done Tear It All Away, one of my faves, but you can’t have everything, Of the Grant songs he did Love Goes On plus some others, but no Cattle and Cain. I guess that was too iconic for Steve, or something. It was a good gig, and a great tribute to Grant McLennan. He’s long gone, but the legend lives on. Thanks Steve, and thanks Paul for getting me there (even if you weren’t!).
