In 1850, Jack Daniels came into the world and would grow up to become a semi-decent whisky maker. In 1972, the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street album came into the world and would grow up to be regarded as one of the best ever. The celebration of the former was marked by a special one-off performance of the latter with You Am I acting as house band and a cavalcade of guest singers filling in for the most iconic lips in rock.
The band obviously adores the album. They faithfully belted into ‘Rocks Off’ to start the ball rolling, Tim Rogers all jolting moves, pouts and struts while most regally attired in a purple velvet smoking jacket. Jet’s Nic Cester was the first guest singer of the evening, for the rollicking ‘Rip This Joint’, beefed up even more by the entrance of a brass section side of stage sending soulful shots of sound across the room. A sauntering, black-velvet-clad Megan Washington added some sass and simmer to ‘Shake your Hips’, while the commanding presence and pipes of Adalita took things up a notch for ‘Tumbling Dice’ to round out the first side of the record.
Exile on Main Street is a somewhat scattered affair for The Stones, with blues and soul-stomp giving way to laidback drawled country tones to more straight-ahead rock and boogie fuelled tracks. The diverse cast of guests reflected the melding of genres. The plaintive and sweetly restrained tones of The Panic’s Jae Laffer fit the breezy coupling of ‘Torn and Frayed’ and ‘Sweet Black Angel’, and the imposing growl and sneer of Tex Perkins suitably corrupted ‘Happy’ and ‘Ventilator Blues’. Venetta Fields — who actually appeared on the album itself — added rich blues-drenched backing vocals and brought a touch of authenticity to the evening.
The You Am I lads weren’t to be outshone, though. Davey Lane was Taylor-made, smilingly swerving his six-string stage right, while Rusty up back with his percussion sidekick Cec Condon kept the beat flowing and bubbling. The gig was best summed up by Nick Barker, who introduced ‘All Down the Line’ with “I can’t tell you how good this is, getting drunk and singing Rolling Stones with your friends”. It was like sitting in on a pub-talk idea cum good jam session. An all-on-stage finale of ‘Soul Survivor’ proved to be the end of the party games, but lots more toasts to the birthday boy no doubt followed.
This review was written by Andy Ryan and originally appeared at YourGigs:
http://www.yourgigs.com.au/reviews/?review_id=193692
