Review: Powderfinger regroup sets new high in lockdown music
A decade after Powderfinger disbanded, the online reunion was a triumph of songwriting drama and technical production.
While the spread of a novel virus has kept us away from concert venues since mid-March, the Brisbane-born rock band Powderfinger played with such power, precision and emotion on Saturday night that few live music lovers could fail to be moved by the spectacle.
“Thanks for having us,” said singer Bernard Fanning at the top of the concert which was streamed on YouTube. “We’re here to put some smiles on faces. Everybody — get close to the telly, turn it up, enjoy yourselves.”
With a set performed from five locations in eastern Australia, the quintet played together for the first time since its break-up in 2010 and set a new standard for the era of COVID-19, which has seen many artists turn to streaming charmingly lo-fi sets from their homes.
Rather than follow that trend, Powderfinger enlisted a small squad of audiovisual technicians to ensure an extremely polished production that was mixed and mastered by Nick DiDia, who has lent his ears and expertise to four of the band’s seven albums.
Directors Jeremy Hancock and Marty Moynihan led a multi-camera operation that matched the band’s bold, distinctive sound with high-energy visuals, switching between studios in Byron Bay (Fanning), Melbourne (guitarist Darren Middleton), Sunshine Coast (drummer Jon Coghill) and a bushy suburb outside Brisbane (guitarist Ian Haug).
Bassist John Collins easily bested his bandmates in the location stakes, however, by using The Fortitude Music Hall, one of two Brisbane music venues he co-owns. The shots of him playing at the centre of a big stage inside an otherwise empty venue were breathtaking, and served as a reminder of what we are all missing.
The seven-song set — a fundraiser for Support Act and Beyond Blue — began with the exuberant 2004 single Bless My Soul and lent heavily on fourth album Odyssey Number Five (2000) and fifth album Vulture Street (2003), with 1998’s Already Gone the oldest track aired.
Fan favourites My Happiness, (Baby I’ve Got You) On My Mind and These Days each appeared, with the biggest surprise coming in the form of Odyssey deep cut Thrilloilogy: a sprawling, six-minute creation that showcased the band’s superb sense of songwriting drama and dynamics.
Unlike his bandmates, Coghill has barely played music since the last show in 2010, which made his work behind the kit all the more impressive. In sum, the performance was so tantalisingly accomplished that it will take considerable willpower on Powderfinger’s part for this to remain a one-off.
For now, though, let’s take the group at its word and enjoy this concert for what it was: one of Australia’s greatest bands reforming to raise money for charity and to rock out for about 87,000 viewers who joined the live broadcast, and more than 400,000 YouTube viewers in the first 24 hours. With charity donations surpassing $425,000 by midday Sunday, there can be no doubt the group achieved both its goals.
Powderfinger, One Night Lonely, streamed online, May 23, 2020.