Rod Laver Arena on Thursday October 3, 2024 with James Johnston and Sons Of The East
Sons Of The East Declare Love And Peace – Not War
It was dusk on a steamy spring day as crowds of cowboys and cowgirls rushed from the trains, trams, buses and all-purpose utes and pick-up trucks to this historic tennis stadium.
There was not a net or ball boys and girls occupying the massive mosh pit where tennis champs raised their racquets in summer.
This was a raucous racket of a vastly different nature as the horrific wars in Ukraine and Gaza strip were banished from the memory banks for four hours of joyous music.
South Georgian headliner Kip Moore and his hot band were on much drier land than frantic folks in neighbouring southern states from Florida and beyond who were drowned by hurricanes and rainstorms.
It was apt northern Sydney surf band Sons Of The East opened the show far from the Middle East.
The banjo belting boys soon ignited the beefy bearded bush blokes and hefty heifers with songs from their debut album Palomar Parade and three EPS Already Gone, Burn Right Through and self-titled debut disc.
Singer and guitarist Jack Rollins led his band through crowd pleasing tunes including One More Time Be My Baby, Wish I Knew, Silver Lining, I Just Want To Hold You, It Must Be Luck and Already Gone.
This reviewer may have misheard all the songs titles but not the swansong by Rollins as he reminded the audience of the next act James Johnston and headliner Moore.
“I’ve never been to Rod Laver Arena before but I tripped on a lead and almost went head over biscuit,” Rollins regaled his audience as they learned how to avoid future foot failures on their way to bars and BBQS in search of beers and biscuits.
Meanwhile pre-recorded music between Sons Of The East and Johnston included Jolene, Chicken Fried, Friends In Low Places, It’s 5 O Clock Somewhere and prize parody Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy
There were plenty of curvaceous cowgirls in the moist mosh-pit but none seemed to mount cowboys of their choice when the lights went down.
James Johnston From The Manning River To The Yarra
“Backed up traffic on the highway, going nowhere
I had to stay back and work late and I'm over it
tried looking up but all I see
high rise staring down at me
not a star in sight
so I'm just thinking
I'll head back to a small town
Home bound, back to what I know
back to a big sky.”
Small Town
James Johnston-Nolan Wynn
James Johnston, a bush bred cowboy from a Wingham farm near the Manning River in northern NSW, entered the stage with a roar normally heard north of the Yarra River when footballs were booted with gusto.
James, ready to celebrate his 35th birthday on November 26, was no stranger to big arenas after international and national tours.
He was raised by his father and mother on a farm where he listened to his country heroes while driving tractors, trucks and Utes as he rounded up sheep and cattle.
Johnston opened his set with his bush anthem Raised Like That.
“I was raised on 40 acres at the end of a dirt track,” Johnston revealed.
“I played small town bars with songs about broken hearts. For the next 30 minutes I want you to have some fun and singalong.”
The singer asked for a show of hands from folks who had seen him in concert before as he ignited his Small-Town hit and followed with Country Boys.
Johnston then paid tribute to local country icon Lee Kernaghan.
“He was one of childhood heroes,” Johnston explained as he introduced Who I Am that he wrote with Lee, Colin Buchanan, Nick Wolfe and Nolan Wynne.
It was during this song that the reviewer wondered if Carlton fan Kernaghan might have been a better AFL Grand Final headliner than Katy Perry.
That was of little moment as Johnston returned with words of wisdom as he praised police, emergency workers, Fire and Ambulance men and women, farmers and other frontline heroes.
“While the world is divided they are the heroes,” he added as he asked audience members to raise their hands and voices if they were front line workers.
Johnston, aided by a gymnastic bassist Steele who may have been an energiser bunny in a previous life and frenetic female fiddler Rachel in sparkling splendour akin to her outfit, kept up the tempo.
The singer paid tribute to the significance of his farming family and friends before he performed Seeing You Soon.
Johnston’s audience sang along as he performed other originals including Blame On Me and Same Song – inspired by meeting his wife Talia many moons ago.
He finished with My People as he jumped on the drum kit, armed with a phone camera and yelled “I want to get a photo of all of you.”
Johnston and his band countrified his tunes with harmonica and steel guitar and was a hard act to follow but Moore was equal to the task.
Kip More Than A Rudyard Kipling
“F… that I don’t live here to work/ my time is short and it ain’t yours/ don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind/ getting my hands in a little dirt/ but I don’t live here to work.” – Live Here To Work – Kip Moore.
South Georgian singer-songwriter and frequent Australian tourist Kip Moore has similar roots to famed English journalist, novelist, poet, and short story writer Joseph Rudyard Kipling from whom he earned his Christian name.
Kip’s mother named him Kipling Christian Moore after the Indian born writer 44 years ago on April 1 but it was no April fool’s joke.
Moore, born in Tifton in south central Georgia, proved a louder legacy of Kipling in his music career that brought him back to Australia on his fifth national tour.
Kip’s choice of clothing – a sleeveless tee shirt – was a necessity as he and his hot band perspired on this hot October night.
He made it clear from his entrée songs Bitter Sweet Company, Where Are You Tonight and Fire And Flame that he was going to deliver with a swagger that was a far cry from his Nashville studios with memorable producer inspired names Dickhouse and Forthouse.
It was no surprise one of his guitarists mounted a stage box for his fifth album title track Damn Love that was followed by Crazy One More Time.
Moore also climbed on another stage box for Wild Ones and swapped electric guitar for acoustic as he slowed the tempo for Plead The Fifth.
The singer thanked his Melbourne audience for flocking to the Rod Laver Arena and didn’t mistake the city name like a previous geographically deprived peer.
“You don’t have to work tomorrow and can drink beer” was his spoken intro to his 2012 penned hit Beer Money.
He celebrated waves of women in song in Tell Her, More Girls Like You and That Was Us.
Opening act Sons Of The East rejoined him on centre stage for his cover of the Robbie Robertson penned The Band hit The Weight.
There was no need to expand on the Nazareth reference in the historic hit in these troubled times.
Moore and his band were celebrating performing in a city far from the Middle East wars and the horrific Helene hurricane that destroyed homes and lives due south of Georgia.
It was also a few days before Jolene creator Dolly Parton came to the aid of the Helene victims with her three-million-dollar donation.
Moore referenced his Christchurch concert as he introduced Hey Pretty Girl that was followed by Heart’s Desire and another historic hit Something About A Truck.
He shared his alcohol desires with his thirsty fans by leaping into the mosh pit as he showered them with plentiful plectrums as her rocked up Come And Get It, Last Shot and apt hit Micky’s Bar.
Moore also told his captive audience it was not his record labels that expanded his success but the fans who bought his records and attended his shows.
He translated that into his fiery finale Live Here To Work – one of his more recent recordings – that was followed by his band joining him in posing with an Australian flag.
Moore also thanked his tour promoters – Launceston born Michael Chugg and Susan Heyman.
Even more importantly he credited another promoter Rob Potts who tragically died in a Van Diemen’s Land motor bike accident on October 27, 2017.
“When I played the 2105 CMC Rocks Queensland festival in 2015 Rob said ‘even though you played the small stage you sold more CDs than anyone else.”
It was a timely tribute to the late promoter whose legacy is carried on by his son Jeremy Dylan with Chuggie and Susan Heyman.
