The Stereophonics have returned to Australia in support of their 2007 album 'Pull The Pin', and while they were here showing off their new stuff fans were given a greatest hits set.
The gig was in a large part made up of instantly recognisable classics - and the band sure has had a lot of them. 'Just Looking', 'Local Boy In The Photograph', 'Mr. Writer' (a song about a journalist who had toured with them, then proceeded to write about singer Kelly Jones' head and arse interconnecting), 'Hurry Up And Wait' and many more mingled in with some obligatory new tracks.Crowd sing-alongs to 'A Thousand Trees' and 'Just Looking' were notable highlights of the gig and the audience even seemed excited to hear the powerful 'Devil' from 2005's 'Language. Sex. Violence. Other?' album.
However, it must be noted, that while the band are slick and Jones' voice still sits so comfortably between Rod Stewart's and Liam Gallagher's, it had dawned on me while watching the band on Friday night that from my first live Stereophonics experience at the Offshore Festival in 1998, until this past weekend, the band have gone nowhere.
The same formula used to write 'Local Boy In The Photograph' has been used to write 'My Friends' and despite the occasional new production trick thrown in over the years, they haven't changed a bit since I first saw them walk on stage a decade ago.
Each song has a fairly low-key verse followed by a big melodic chorus. Seriously, go and listen and tell me that's not a formula.
All in all, it was a good gig. That's it, it was good. There is no real way to fault them and the audience were happy. They're excellent musicians playing near-but-not-too-near spot on versions of their many many hits but I can't help remaining sceptical; if a band were truly writing from their heart, rather than from a formula, wouldn't that have naturally changed over ten years?
