Paul Kelly/Chris Wilson & Crown Of Thorns

Metro - 12/05/98
Review by Ross Clelland - (The Drum Media - 19 May 1998 - #394)

More a one-off launch gig to further inform the world the new Words And Music album is about, before a full scale tour in July (a quick trip to America in between) or so, maybe in a little bigger form than usual.

Big bloke with harmonica is on first thought, with Mr Wilson crashing through a slightly hollow mix with a bunch of the good stuff, picking the eyes out of his recent Long Weekend thing, and throwing in some older selections - the 'best done by Elvis' Mystery Train being a big blow, as is the pump action Shoot Out At Seven Eleven, while the big ballady Too Many Hearts again is a glory and must be a single, surely.

With no intro or fanfare, the Kelly Band takes the stage, with the man himself in usual basic black workshirt and trousers ensemble and they start into the new album's opener, the socially aware and understatedly vitriolic Little Kings. On budget night, 'I am afraid for my country' a horribly apt opening.

The new record is certainly the focus - 'no nostalgia, maybe a little neuralgia' he explains - and most all of it gets a run. Going particularly well, the ones you might have thought could be a bit of a problem, like the buzzy Nothing On My Mind that has most all of this big three guitar band having a yell for the backing vocals. Tease Me similarly comes up well, all snaky like.

Going for event status, the guests from the album are duly trotted out. Rebecca Barnard sharing the vocals on the cajoling She Answers The Sun with its morning mood, and she stays for the pulse of Beat Of Your Heart. Later, Monique Brumby and her angular dancing are featured through Melting, which she and kelly co-wrote. That song remains a strangely compelling thing, two bass attack and all.

Like the record itself, the show has all kinds of tangents, and sometimes the pacing comes a little askew. Glory Be To God all hymnal, before the nice rocky crunch of Saturday Night And Sunday Morning sees the band locking in nicely, with the guitars of Spencer Jones and Shane O'Mara working out their place by natural attrition.

A couple of older tunes are trotted out toward the close, but maybe not the expected ones. Shoes Under My Bed retains its longing, while Chris is drawn from the sidestage to provide the necessary harmonica howl for Darling It Hurts, before a final encore of the more restrained California sends us out. Perhaps a slightly unnatural format but impressive as you'd expect. Be there for the tour proper.