When it’s the hottest part of a Sunday afternoon, and the thermometer is reading over forty degrees, it is hard to imagine anything worse for a performer than to be playing a gig to a full house in a suburban tin shed.
Luckily for us, it obviously takes more than the extreme temperatures of an Adelaide heatwave to keep Australian music legends Rob Snarski & Lindy Morrison from the stage.
In fact, Snarski’s quietly resonant singing voice and his penchant for capturing beautiful melancholia in his songs suited the hot afternoon perfectly – even if Morrison seemed to disagree as she playfully goaded him for not writing more upbeat tunes so that she could have ‘more fun’ playing the drums.
The majority of this short set centred around selections from Snarski’s last few solo albums as well as the duo’s recent SnarskiCircusLindyBand EP.
The show began with ‘Searching For The Heart Of It All‘, originally a moody and evocative track from Snarski’s COVID lockdown project, Song Gifts, but in this incarnation, thanks to Morrison’s unusual and intriguingly dysrhythmic percussion, changed into something more exotic and dynamic.
The oldest song in the set, ‘The Black Caress‘; from 2014’s Wounded Bird album, is the sort of moody atmospheric tune you’d expect to hear being played in a cantina somewhere in the deserts of Mexico, making it a perfect choice for this show.
A bracket of songs from 2019’s Sparrow & Swan which highlighted Snarski’s observational and wryly humorous songwriting style, followed and these were enhanced by the sympathetic instrumental contributions of two local players, Greg Blanch on slide guitar and Karl Melvin on bass.
The crowd particularly appreciated Snarski’s clever lyrical additions to these tunes, such as replacing some of their interstate geographical settings to some local suburban locations.
Handing the lead vocals over to others for a few songs in such a relatively short set initially seemed like a strange thing to do, however, Harry T. Gent’s renditions of ‘Mexico, I Have Never Been There‘ and ‘Sweet Edie‘ were revelatory, and drew high praise from Morrison who declared his versions were better than the originals sung by Snarski & Dan Kelly.
The lyrically redolent ‘Shane O’Mara Wears Mascara‘ provided some brevity, particularly as it was preceded by Morrison unsuccessfully attempting to have Snarski break his unflappably cultured demeanour and employ language unbecoming of a gentleman as they both laughingly regaled us with the tale of how the song came to be.
Some candid confessional commentary from Morrison contextualised her lyrical contributions to the garage rock-ish ‘Since I Slept With You, Everybody Wants To Sleep With Me‘. This was followed by another lovely lyric of Morrison’s, filled with hope and yearning, and possibly entitled ‘When You Leave (You Always Come Back)‘, which, according to her instructions, was supposed to have been underpinned by an upbeat rock track. Snarski, however, turned into one of those gorgeous country-tinged ballads he does so well, and sang it beautifully.
The band’s last guest for this performance was Rowena Ashton, who tastefully harmonised with Snarski on the lovely ‘Wait For Me‘ – a song that sounds like it could have been lifted straight off of a Twin Peaks soundtrack – and then took over the lead vocal role for another terrific song, ‘My Friend Too‘.
The last song, defying expectations of a cover of any of their former bands’ classics, was ‘You’ll See The Moon’, another sumptuous crooner.
This show proved to be a showcase of wonderful songs, beautifully sung, emphasising once again that Rob Snarski is one of Australia’s very best singer – songwriters.
The musical collaboration between Snarski and Morrison – who provides the union with some necessary lightness and her own brand of dynamism – works well, so let’s hope that it continues to be a productive one for some time yet!