While The Lemonheads have always been predominantly a modern rock band, they did always have an air of grunge cool around them.
Despite never falling into the despairing grunge of other 90s acts, Lemonheads captured the laziness of the time, with tracks like ‘My Drug Buddy’ becoming an anthem for drop-out culture and an overall sound that was both disillusioned and optimistic, like the sweet and sour lolly from which the band takes its name.
Meredith sideshows being a haven of adult behaviour thanks to the younger crowd choosing to see acts exclusively at the festival, the gig started to the minute of the setlist, with most of the audience wandering surprised into the bandroom from the Corner bar when Jen Cloher appeared on stage. Cloher’s unassuming stage presence was almost indistinguishable from Evan Dando’s who sat down on the dot of 9.45 and launched into a few solo acoustic tracks before the new line-up of The Lemonheads band joined him on stage (Dando is the only remaining original band member).
The acoustic performance from Dando is the reason you see your favourite band at their sideshow, as Lemonheads will surely favour well known tracks ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Confetti’ for those born post the band’s inception in ‘86.
Behind his guitar, Dando is still the shy frontman many couldn’t accept on account of his looks, which resemble a pop rock Jim Morrison. Dando’s lyrics are a testament to his shunning the spotlight in favour of the tiny details that one recalls from a Lemonheads song like old friends.
Tracks from 1992’s It’s A Shame About Ray were sprinkled into the setlist to the delight of the audience, with some up the front attempting to sing along every time a well-known song came up, but for the most part, the crowd was a sea of cooing flannel shirts drinking two glasses of water to one beer.
Unfortunately, some of the crowd’s attention was lost when the stage sound proved too low for the band, with Dando mentioning its low quality several times. Two middle aged bro types up the back started a loud conversation about how the band must be missing a roadie right about now (perhaps their girlfriends had abandoned them to go up the front), but the energy from the stage was all on Dando who eventually just laughed off the technical troubles and began the opening riff to ‘Confetti’ which brought the crowd’s attention back.
Despite a lot of the subject matter being about youth and awkwardness, Lemonheads songs don’t sound dated thanks to their pop tinge that always come out sounding like a celebration of that time in our lives.
On Stage, lights turned Dando’s face green and red, another trademark of The Lemonheads low-fi and unpretentious style. ‘Alison’s Starting to Happen’ prompted more crowd participation and ‘Into Your Arms’ got the crowd murmuring amongst each other, the gist of which sounded like everyone in the audience once heard the track on a mixtape way-back when.
Despite starting on time, the band managed to perform half an hour over schedule, coming back for at least three encores, though true to recent perfromances they did not perform the track most associated with their group, a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Mrs Robinson’ (don’t expect it at Meredith either, Dando has openly stated he hates performing the song).
Instead Evan Dando treated the crowd to more of his later solo work, including ‘Hard Drive’ and ‘Being Around’. When the band made their third exit from the stage and the house lights came up, the audience almost collectively sighed in welcoming 2014 back.
Check out the full gallery from the show here.
