Live Review: Easy Fever

The room is comfortably full for tonight's Easy Fever show and, after today's searing heat, not having to become intimately acquainted with the armpit of the punter nextdoor is a welcome treat. Celebrating The Easybeats, arguably one of Australia's greatest musical exports, it is only fitting that tonight's players are an Avengers-calibre supergroup of musical antiheroes. With Chris Cheney (The Living End), Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon), Kram (Spiderbait), Tim Rogers (You Am I), and Tex Perkins (The Cruel Sea) sharing vocal duties, backed by bandleader Jak Housden (The Whitlams), Ashley Naylor (Even), Dario Bortolin (Baby Animals), Dave Hibbard (Joe Bonamassa) and Clayton Doley (Divinyls), tonight's line-up is an embarrassment of riches.

Arriving on stage fashionably late, and similarly attired, Jamieson is first up with Women (Make You Feel Alright) - an upbeat warmer-upper, before trading places with a stony-faced Rogers. The facade melts immediately as he unleashes a devilish, "Woooooooaaaaawwww!" signalling the beginning of She's So Fine. Rogers is a hip-shaking, leg-swinging sensation, his dance moves proving unbeatable and his costume changes numerous.

The early highlight is Perkins' turn on For My Woman. It's a simmering slow grind, which he approaches with a primal sensuality. His cigarettes-and-whiskey voice wraps around the song and fills the entire room. It's unashamedly sexy and sets the bar early on. Cheney marches on, guitar slung around his shoulders and tackles Who'll Be The One You Love, followed by Kram, who plays up to the crowd on I Can See after almost all but the front row miss his low-key entrance. The gags don't stop there. Perkins takes a backwards tumble exiting the stage after a raucous Wedding Ring, and when someone shouts, "You've still got it, Tim!" Rogers cracks, "I never lost it, sister." The vibe is loose and playful, but the set is ridiculously tight.

Naylor, Housden, and Hibbard, who recorded the music for the recent Friday On My Mind miniseries and also coached the actors on how to play their instruments (or at least how to pretend to do so), do an excellent job on Say That You're Mine. Naylor's A Very Special Man deserves a mention for sheer gorgeousness.

The setlist is enormous and therefore split in two, the latter half of the first is capped off by a pure rock'n'roll rendition of Sorry, with Kram taking over on vocals and going on to outdo himself with each appearance. Rogers observes, "Look, everybody, here's our work experience boy, Chris Cheney, with a song he wrote in the bathroom." Cheney shoots back, "I'm here for one reason, the money... and to make you happy," before ripping through I'll Make You Happy with Kram on drums, playing with such gusto that he manages to break the kit. Shoulders sway and hips twist, the crowd livening up as the set progresses.

The Rogers-helmed Peculiar Hole In The Sky dips its toes in psychedelia before he introduces "our work experience girl, Phil, here to sing a B-side I can't remember" and quite literally skips off the stage. The nameless B-side being Friday On My Mind, Jamieson channels Stevie Wright's cheekiness to a tee, making it his own with his signature growl and left-right points. The dancing off stage is daggy, plentiful and glorious.

Rogers performs a brilliantly menacing Black Eyed Bruiser, every inch the boiling street fighting man, an angular ball of fury throwing down his mic stand and punctuating his performance with kicks and jabs. The second set is so filled with gems that it is impossible to list them all without giving my editor a heart attack. Kram's take on Yesterday's Hero is a booming singalong and a true delight, Cheney's Hey St Peter is rollicking and fun, and the five-way vocal attack of Hard Road is, for want of a better word, a hoot.

With the encore comes the moment everyone has been waiting for: Evie, in its gargantuan three-part entirety. ...Part One is shared between Kram, Cheney and Rogers, and is a swaggering ball of bravado in its come-hither attitude. Then, ...Part Two. Oh, ...Part Two. There are few words that can accurately describe just how perfect Perkins' rendition of this song is. Beautiful, magical, heartstring-tugging or powerful do not do it justice. Grown men cry and hold each other, lighters are held aloft and goosebumps appear. Then Jamieson brings it all together, nailing ...Part Three perfectly.

The singers reunite once again with Good Times. Although Perkins misses his cue and scuttles on a touch late, it is a triumph and the cherry on top of an awesome evening.

The love and care that each and every musician on the stage tonight put into learning these songs is only surpassed by the love and care that went into performing them live with such passion and adoration. The meandering walk down memory lane is a reminder of just how vital The Easybeats (as a whole and separately) are to the Australian music landscape as it is now.

Walking out of the theatre, one last attendee remarks, "That Tim Rogers, he's the Barnum & Bailey of rock'n'roll". He's not wrong.