Here’s something a little different for you from ChampagneComedy.com: Photographer / Pop Culture Lover / Live Gig fan Tim Chuma attended the Things of Stone And Wood 35th Anniversary performance on behalf of the site to see what ‘Melbourne cliches’ he could get out of the gig.
Things of Stone and Wood 35th Anniversary Show
Corner Hotel, Tuesday 5th November 2024
“I just ran out of Melbourne cliches!”
It must be said that some jokes have legs, both the band and the venue used The Late Show parody clip to promote the show and The Sharp does sell skivvies at their shows on the merchandise table. I saw Frente at the venue last year and regularly say hello to Angie Hart usually when I see her over at the Lomond Hotel after JVG Radio Method on RRR FM. That is where Greg Arnold was on the Sunday before the show promoting the gig and talked about how he did not mind playing the big hit as it is the reason people still remember the band.
The band’s original heyday was in the 1990s before I had finished high school and I didn’t really start going to see bands until 2003. Going back and looking at the Inpress archives on the Music website there were a lot of gigs every week at places at the Punters Club (now reopened), the Tote and the Espy. Dan & Al used to have 13 shows they could play per week according to Dan Warner. (I am going to see their Christmas show this year as usual.)
Having seen a lot of so-called “heritage” acts as house photographer at the Caravan Music Club when it was open in Oakleigh, the musicians involved have not stopped playing music in the intervening years and it is often much better so see them now than back in the day as they have more songs and experience. This was the case here even with the songs I did not know so well they still got the crowd pogoing along (I had a seat) and handing out musk sticks to share.
Greg Arnold talked about his first synth-metal band and offered to buy back any photos of the band. He also said he once fell through the stage at the Corner Hotel when it was a lot more run down than it was now and risked it by playing the exact same song.
The band did one folk set and one more rocking set. I only got photos from the first 3 songs but it was pretty much the same on stage for the whole show.
I enjoyed the day and may have done so a bit more if I did not go out to the Pulp Fiction 30th anniversary by the Tarantinos band the night before as I kept almost falling asleep in my chair. The band is well worth going to see even if you do only know one of their songs and just want a good show to go see.
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