Photo: Candice Marshall

If you needed proof that something quite unusual is afoot tonight, look no further than The Zoo. At least half of the busy crowd are wearing newspaper hats they made at home, in what must be an eye-opening gig for Melbourne singer-songwriter Andrew Swift. His balladeering in Eleanor is pleasantly standard, and his rock a kind of FM-emo slick, but it’s really only when he lets loose in a cover of Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer that the growl in his voice gains any individual texture.

Peter Combe’s kids songs that Australia grew up on 15-20 years ago might be overwhelmingly silly, but the adoration in tonight’s crowd is undoubtedly sincere. Emerging to a simply enormous roar, a aged-well Combe and just aged keyboard player ‘Phil’ roll through singalongs like Baghdad (You left your bag Dad, in Baghdad), Chopsticks and Toffee Apple with a charismatic comfort, aware of the absurdity of playing these songs to hundreds of twenty-somethings, but not lessening the importance of these childhood memories by taking the piss. Nobody’s self-conscious when the entire Zoo amazingly sways as one to the beautiful Rain. Nobody worries if they can sing or not as we answer Combe’s calls of Newspaper Mama. The hometown cheer is deafening when he namechecks Brisbane in the ABC Songbook classic Parcel In The Post. Peter Combe’s songs have never talked down, and so it is tonight that we see essentially a singer-songwriter with a sense of the bizarre and fun, instead of a kids show per se. Introducing his finale as the song he’s played most in his career, ‘my American Pie’ Mr Clicketty Cane, Combe’s genuine smile and thanks are reflected by a real heartfelt mania from the crowd, one of the most incredible responses to a show I have ever witnessed. As he encores with Juicy Juicy Green Grass, the idea dawns that if Peter Combe’s not playing a big festival stage soon, somebody will be missing out on one of Generation Y’s most reliable and impassioned drawcards.

SIMON TOPPER

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*