Decomposing Trees

Tim Rogers is undoubtedly my favourite Australian musician. He takes a variety of influences; country, folk, British invasion and American alternative rock and turn it into something uniquely Australian and suburban that you can empathise with.

His last album with the Temperance Union, Ghost Songs & Dirty Ron was amongst the best local albums I’ve heard in the last few years. It’s a bit disappointing that his solo material doesn’t get as much attention when it is of equal quality to the output from his You Am I heyday and is surpassing his You Am I material lately.

It’s been awhile since I saw a proper show with Tim Rogers since I missed out on his You Am I shows last year (I'm still annoyed about missing the Drones and You Am I double headliner) so I was pleased to find out he was doing a solo show at The Basement. I hadn’t been to The Basement before. There have been a number of occasions where I’ve thought about going to see a band but never got around to it.

The support for the night was Dave Larkin and Peter Satchell from Dallas Crane, playing songs on acoustic guitar. They did an alright set, not bad but not memorable though some Dallas Crane songs like ‘Already Gone’ well suited to the acoustic treatment.

Most of Tim Rogers’ songs were with pianist Louis Macklin (67 Special). For many of the songs there wasn’t much guitar playing, instead it was a reinterpretation with the piano. One thing about the entire night was noting how the vibe of the songs changed when different instruments were used. The vibe of the set was like a dingy lounge bar, almost like Tom Waits album Closing Time but not.

The set mainly consisted of material from his Temperance Union albums and the Dress Me Slowly bonus disc but he threw in a song or two from his work with the Twin Set and his collaboration with Tex Perkins (as well as his trademark banter about his songs and verbal sparing with hecklers). Surprisingly, he only played three songs from his new solo album. I expected a couple more new tracks.

The setlist included (not in actual order):

Some Fellas Heartbreaker
Social Pages
Time And Distance
Damn Songs
Makin Toast
Paragon Café
Wild One
Dinosaurs
Get Drunk, Ring Yer Friends
Ridin Between My Place And Ours
The Man You Want Me To Be
The Loneliest Folk In The World
Heavy Heart
The Songs They Played As I Drove Away

I probably missed a couple of songs he played (and names of the new tracks he premiered).