Review: Models mark 40 years of I Hear Motion with Qld shows

They may have lost their pin-up frontman, but Aussie rock veterans Models are forging on with the latest of their innumerable line-ups from nearly five decades.

They might have had more line-up changes than LRB, but Models have been held together by Sean Kelly (on and off) for 45 years.

And the modern-day line-up – featuring Kelly, fellow early members Andrew Duffield and Mark Ferrie, and “new” addition Ash Davies – are now touring to mark the 40th anniversary of their biggest hit I Hear Motion. (No, it’s not Out of Mind Out of Sight – I Hear Motion broke through internationally as well.)

“They say it’s the 40th anniversary, but if that was true I would’ve been about 12,” Kelly quipped to the small but appreciative crowd at Miami Marketta’s Studio 56 on the Gold Coast on Friday night.

And with sultry sometime frontman James Freud having tragically passed in 2010, it was left to Kelly to take on his signature tunes Out of Mind Out of Sight, Barbados (“the calypso part of tonight’s program”) and upbeat opener Hold On. While serviceable renditions, they could have benefited from some woodwind (is James Valentine busy right now?)

The setlist ran the gamut of their post-punk/new-wave-to-commercial-heights back catalogue, from 1980’s Pate Pedestrian to the synthy, bassy throb of 2013 track Drive Through Love. “This is one of our conveyance tunes too,” Kelly said midway through. “Stand by for a carpark reference.”

And God Bless America has never been more relevant: “It’s probably a little distasteful, but... heh... that’s never stopped us before,” Kelly said.

Kelly might be the band’s mainstay vocalist but he didn’t hog the mike. Longtime keyboardist Duffield performed his own That Guy? and vintage tune Pate Pedestrian, while almost-original bassist Ferrie sang another early number Unhappy.

Models play The Zoo in Brisbane on Saturday night

Setlist: Hold On, Big on Love, Happy Birthday IBM, Two Cabs to the Toucan, Unhappy, Drive Through Love, You Know What I Like About That Guy? (Nothing), God Bless America, Truth About Truth About Scientists, Local and/or General, Gravity, Out of Mind Out of Sight, I Hear Motion. Encore: Atlantic Romantic, Pate Pedestrian, Barbados.

Originally published as Review: Models mark 40 years of I Hear Motion with Qld shows