POWDERFINGER
Powderfinger are heading out on a national tour in June and, if this is the first time you have heard about it, I've got bad news: you are not going. Almost all of the 'Upstairs at the Downstairs' tour tickets sold out within minutes, meaning that you can take some comfort in the fact you are not the only person to miss out.
By Nate Shea
This is not any ordinary tour either. The Powderfinger lads, being the caring, sharing guys they always are, have elected to hand over control of the set-list to the fans. A purchased ticket means you have the chance to make sure your favourite song gets played by voting online. It's indeed a unique and innovative concept and, as bassist John 'JC' Collins explains, one that surfaced while the band were on last year's 'Across The Great Divide' tour with Silverchair. "We were driving around the country on our last tour and were talking about if we do another tour, what would we do," states JC. "We started talking about ideas and doing different things like rarities tours, so we threw our ideas around and one that we all sort of fell for was that we'd do two sets and get people to vote. It's something we've never done before."
The shows will see the five-piece playing - hopefully, depending on people's votes - a mixture of new favourites and rare back catalogue pieces, with the band to give two distinct sets; one acoustic and a second rock, split by an intermission. And the band is promising some surprises, with the lads about to head into the rehearsal studio for five weeks to prepare for the tour. "We're going to sit down in the room and pick out some songs we think should be rock and see how they go, and re-arrange a few things," JC reveals.
Powderfinger's extensive catalogue of songs has already been whittled down to 40 by the band, with JC ensuring there is an even spread of tracks from across their 13 year recorded history, stretching from their debut, 'Parables For Wooden Ears', all the way up to last year's 'Dream Days At The Hotel Existence'. "It's actually all quite well represented," says JC. "I had a look at the sums and it's like five or six off each record, including b-sides and stuff like that," he discloses. "We all voted for what we wanted to nominate. There's 'The Tail', which was our first single, that's on there as is another song off our first release - and a few songs that weren't singles on 'Double Allergic'." All in all it's a diverse list, which will offer several challenges to the band. "'The Tail' is a fun song," states JC. "But we'll see how it goes, it's a song that is too hard to play - we can't play it anymore. We're not good enough," he laughs.
The beginning of this upcoming 'Upstairs at the Downstairs' tour marks the one-year anniversary of the release of their latest album 'Dream Days...'. Despite this, JC reveals the Powderfinger lads feel as though they are yet to truly tour the album. "We just felt like the record is still not over, because it only came out just before we went on the '...Great Divide' tour," he states. "As far as we're concerned, it still hasn't finished for us." The new tour also sees the band playing multiple shows in each city to cope with demand but, as the bassist reveals, the band is relishing the return to a smaller stage. "After the enormity of the '... Great Divide' tour and playing Boondall [Brisbane Entertainment Centre], which we've never done, we are just looking forward to getting back into the theatre stuff. Getting back into smaller venues is really exciting."
It is testament to Powderfinger's career that they can sell out three successive Tivoli shows - roughly 4500 tickets - in such a short space of time. They are arguably Brisbane's greatest ever band, having steadfastly based themselves in this city for almost 20 years. The band played a major role in the '90s redevelopment of the Brisbane music scene, yet 'JC' still recalls his fellow contemporaries leaving town in search of greener pastures. "When we first started, every band got out of Brisbane," he says. "We were pretty content not to do that. We always said we were prepared to spend a day in the car driving." Yet he reveals that while they have always based themselves in Brisbane, there was a time where they almost moved overseas. "There was one stage where we toyed around with the idea," he confirms.
As the millennium ticked over and the band grew in stature, they flirted with the idea of moving. "Probably around 'Odyssey Number 5', when we were touring America and starting to get a bit of a vibe there. Instead of going back and forth all the time we thought it would be great to live in one city, instead of having those long tours," says JC. Forgoing the traditional London, New York, and California destinations, the band had their eye set on perhaps a peculiar adopted home. "We talked about moving to Vancouver, which was something that appealed to us at the time. It's a really hard question, because a couple of the boys said, 'Yeah, we'd like to move here and try Europe for a year, let's do that', but because of the size of us it doesn't suit all of us at the same time."
Friday June 6 at Lake Kawana Community Centre, Sunshine Coast, Saturday June 7, Sunday June 8, and Monday June 9 at The Tivoli, Brisbane (all shows sold out).
'Dream Days At The Hotel Existence' is out now through Universal. |
