Freo.Social in Fremantle is quickly gathering a fine reputation with both artists and audiences as the place to play and the place to be and tonight’s show pushed the venue to its capacity for the first time since its opening. A quick word about the venue, before we indulge in the music, which previously used to be Fly By Night – the staff are pleasant, polite & extremely attentive and the food decent & competitively priced with a good selection of craft beers and wines. In a world of disappearing venues, we have a refreshing new one with wonderful acoustics too, so well done Freo.Social!
It’s always a nice sight as you approach the venue’s entrance and see a sign up above the door stating “SOLD – OUT, No Door Sales Tonight”. Diesel is one of Australia’s finest musicians and tonight saw his eagerly anticipated ‘Give Me Saturday Night Solo Tour’ roll into town and a full house tells you exactly how popular Mark Lizotte’s music still is.
But before the main act, we were warmed up nicely by the immensely talented Jason Ayres, with his wonderful nine-song mixed set of original compositions and a few wonderful covers for good measure. Ayres kicked the night off with a fantastic rendition of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ before introducing us to the first of his own works with ‘Troubles of My Own’. A stunning version of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang’ with full vibrato guitar effects followed before two more of Ayres’ own compositions ‘Let Me Be Somebody’ & ‘Learning All Alone’ with Jason explaining just how the songs came to be created as he conversed with ease & clarity with the crowd.
Australian Crawl’s classic ‘Restless’ is a track that Ayres rates as one his all-time favourite tunes and he did the track proud with his acoustic version. More originals followed with ‘Lie, Lie Lie’ before Jason played my highlight of his set, the emotional ‘Sweet Carolina’ from his 2016 EP ‘River You Cry’. The set was closed with a wonderful cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ with the audience sending Ayres away to generous applause. Jason left the stage after announcing he had been rewarded with the support slot for Billy Ocean’s forthcoming Australian Tour in June.
SET LIST:
Somewhere Only We Know (Keane Cover), Troubles of My Own, Bang Band (Nancy Sinatra Cover), Let Me Be Somebody, Learning All Alone, Reckless (Australian Crawl Cover), Lie Lie Lie, Sweet Carolina, Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
As the lights dimmed and the crowds anticipation grew, Mark Lizotte (AKA Diesel) bounded on to the Fremantle stage with purpose. This was to be one of those rare special nights where we got to see one of the country’s finest musicians stripped back & raw – no band, no percussion, no backing singers… just Diesel. And what a show he put on for us all! I’m implying he was alone tonight, when Diesel was in fact joined throughout the set by seven fine friends – one stunning gold glitter Gretsch, one fender Stratocaster, three twelve string & two six string acoustic guitars, all of which served to enhance and create the magic that Diesel was to display & perform tonight.
This evening was a journey through Diesel’s back catalogue, with songs rearranged to work in these stripped back forms but not too much so as to take away why we loved these tracks to begin with. Opening with ‘Give Me Saturday Night’ Lizotte told us that over his thirty year career, every night he performs feels like a Saturday night and not to worry that tonight is a Friday – it’s going to feel like a Saturday anyway and it sure did. The hits were all there with songs from his Johnny Diesel & The Injectors days as he fired his way through ‘Since I Fell For You’, ‘Don’t Need Love’ & ‘Soul Revival’.
We were also treated to some incredible covers with Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Spoonful’, ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ made famous by Harry Nilsson, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Hey Joe’ and Otis Redding’s ‘Sitting on the Dock of the Bay’. I had seen Diesel at Red Hot Summer earlier this year in the Swan Valley and had rated him one of the best acts on the day back then… tonight reaffirmed to me what an incredible guitar player he is. His percussion work on his guitars has to be seen to be believed and the hammering these beloved instruments received on the night was breathtakingly stunning.
The crowd whooped and cheered as we were lead through the set with ‘the classics’ following one after another… ‘Never Miss the Water’, ‘Come to me’, ’15 Feet of Snow’ and ‘Tip of My Tongue’ had Diesel smirking & smiling as he cupped his hand to his ear with the audience happily singing chorus lines back in unison.
The best was saved till last as always, with Lizotte closing with a rousing version of ‘Cry In Shame’ and as he put the last of his guitars back in the rack, the Freo.Social crowd rose to their feet as one to give him the send-off he had so rightly earnt and so richly deserved. This was a rare night of magic in a venue that I’m sure will continue to entertain some of the finest acts our country has to offer. Bravo Diesel and Bravo Freo.Social.
SET LIST
Give Me Saturday Night, Since I Fell For You, Everybody’s Talkin’ (Fred Neil Cover), Junk Love, Spoonful (Howlin’ Wolf), Soul Revival, All Come Together, 15 Feet of Snow, (Sitting) On The Dock of The Bay (Otis Redding Cover), Never Miss Your Water, Don’t Need Love, Come To Me, Tip of My Tongue, Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix Cover), Cry In Shame
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Linda Dunjey Photography
