The Forum, Melbourne, Sunday October 6, 2024
Wade Forster Rides High In The Saddle In The Forum
“You are my Juliet and I’ll be the Romeo
lost in the haze of the rodeo
wondering if all these bumps are worth all this dying time
I know what is
you and me and couple kids
saving up money for the auction bids
so we can buy your daddy's block a long while away from Proserpine
if you don't want all this, I'll just go
but if you do I'm your rodeo Romeo.”
Rodeo Romeo
Wade Forster.
It was a sunny spring sabbath when city, suburban and bush cowboys and cowgirls headed to the historic Forum Theatre in downtown Melbourne for a major concert by Florida Georgia Line escapee Tyler Hubbard and Queensland rodeo riding cowboy singer-songwriter Wade Forster.
Luckily the foreign war activists had decamped from the shadows of Flinders Street station and St Paul’s Cathedral as the music echoed from a Federation Square Seniors Festival.
The Anglican cathedral stood the test of time from its 1891 opening to withstand wars and woes of diverse militants.
Luckily the seniors’ festival also survived with the main stage featuring an historic female ukulele choir advertised as Chicks With Picks.
The chicks with picks had finished their set by the time I arrived but were still working the crowd as the energetic ensemble Yacht Rock Revival took over.
Another feminine chanteuse and her bright boy band in matching costumes and saxophone solos hit the stage with classic hits by Toto, Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Michael McDonald, Beach Boys, Hall & Oates and many more.
With seats provided for young and old I stayed for the entire survival of the revival before adding to the quorum in The Forum.
Winton born 2024 Tamworth Starmaker winner Wade Forster kicked the dew off the glass as the mosh pit devotees danced and sang along under the watchful gaze of Gothic statues way above in the wings and beyond but no sign of Frank Thring’s ghost.
“I’m from Winton, Queensland, does anyone know where that is?” Forster quipped as he opened his six-song set.
The audience responded with gusto as Wade added “I thought I would start with some cowboy classics.”
Forster lit up his audience with his Cigarettes song after announcing he was now 26 after winning Starmaker at 25.
The singer regaled fans with tales of his rodeo riding and added “a lot of you don’t know my songs” but added they would hear more when he returned down south in November.
Wade has other off-stage pursuits.
He is a Top 50 All Around Cowboy in the Australian Professional Rodeo Association’s National Finals Rodeo Standings.
It was a perfect entrée to his Rodeo Romeo
“You find the one you fall in love with on the road,” he explained of a meeting with a belle from Tooma.
But he also urged fans to seek mental health advice after he revealed he returned from work to find a female swinging before he performed recent Fighting Tears.
“This song to me is a huge mental health awareness ballad and I am a huge advocate for getting the help needed” Forster recently revealed.
“This song is a true story of a girl I knew and her battles with addiction and depression. It resonates with people who have had hard times.”
Forster personalised his mental health advocacy.
“There were once eight of us on the rodeo circuit but there are now only two of us left,” Wade lamented.
“I’m a big advocate for mental health rehab.”
Forster revealed he followed the rural roots of his parents – “my mum and dad picked cotton.”
The singer and his guitarist Ben Westphal finished on a different high note as they performed his latest single Chemistry.
“Check out my web site,” Wade urged fans as he took off his hat and vacated the stage for the arrival of headliner Tyler Hubbard.
Hubbard Blows The Walls Of The Cupboard
“Small town me
I drive my truck on Friday nights
I push my luck call the boys and raise some hell
like we're all still seventeen
small town me ain't scared to work
and get my hands down in the dirt
and it don't matter where I am
I'll always be Small town me”
Small Town Me
Tyler Hubbard-Chris Lacorte.
This was not the first rodeo for Georgian Tyler Hubbard who has toured here several times with his Grammy winning group Florida Georgia Line and with his own bands.
His most recent trip was CMC Rocks Queensland in March but this time he was back for this Forum show, Deni Ute Muster and concerts in Sydney and the Gold Coast.
He released five albums with Florida Georgia Line from 2012 until they took a hiatus in 2021 and his first self-titled 2023 solo disc and second album Strong this year.
The father of three, who calls Nashville home when not on the road, had his geography nailed as he opened his show.
“Melbourne how ya’ll doing tonight?” Hubbard, now 37, asked after his opening songs.
“We came all the way from Nashville, Tennessee, to do this show. You guys rock,” he said after tossing his first guitar pick into the moist mosh pit.
It may have been many miles from Music City but Hubbard and his hot band blew the cobwebs from the chandeliers as they belted out crowd pleasers Tough and Park before Back Then Right Now.
Hubbard introduced another hit Small Town Me with rural roots.
“I wrote this song about where I come from in Georgia,” Tyler teased as he sang of dairy queens, Nascar races and other items in his memory bank.
“I was writing songs in L.A. in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and my manager called me and said can you write another song,” he recalled, “it was a simple song and Bebe Rexha recorded it as the hit Meant To Be as he introduced it live.
Hubbard revived his song You Make It Easy that was a hit for fellow Georgian Jason Aldean and Florida Georgia Line hit Cruise.
The singer also revived Psycho – a song he revealed that he wrote with Hardy – and his own first hit 5 Foot 9.
“I have a wife at home who loves me and three kids,” he added, “she loves me for me.”
It was an ideal intro for his rendition of Wish You Would.
Hubbard also ignited another new song – his second solo album title track Strong.
“It’s a song about being strong,” he reiterated.
Equally memorable was Way Home as he sang
“I just ride in the seat next to Jesus
cause I know he knows the way home.”
The singer revved up the tempo as he yelled “Melbourne make some noise,’ I love you so much I’ve got Australia tattooed on my leg.”
Hubbard didn’t lift his leg to show his artwork – instead he and his band showered the mosh pit with plectrums.
“In the last few years we’ve been thrown a few curve balls with Covid as we fall down but always get back up,” he told fans, “we have one more song so have some fun.”
The audience were treated to a fiery finale as Tyler and his band members drummer Sean Fuller, pianist Aaron Farmer, bassist Blaine Reedy and guitarists Dan Weller and Edward Robinson showered the mosh pit and beyond again – this time with tee shirts.
It was a smart sales splurge for his merchandise on sale in The Forum foyer where the far queue was even longer than intermission.
Hubbard proved his rocking country music was scoring so much media exposure that it was eating into the pop market and still on a roll with older country fanatics.
