Spiderbait have a long-standing history in the Australian alternate rock music scene with humble beginnings in 1989. The three members of Spiderbait hail from a small town called Finely in New South Wales. The band consists of drummer and lead singer Kram, his cousin Damien Whitty on guitar and backing vocals and long-term friend Janet English on bass and vocals.
Spiderbait built their name and their reputation from 1989 through to 2004 working solidly on albums and touring. In the 15 years the band produced 6 albums and had a staggering 24 singles. The band released a 7th album in 2005 of their Greatest Hits. Spiderbait then had a hiatus for 7 years to concentrate on solo projects and their personal lives but performed the occasional gig.
Fast forward to 2013 and the band reformed and released an album titled “Spiderbait” and in 2017 an album titled “B Sides Collection”.
If producing music, touring and receiving extensive radio air play wasn’t enough, the band also had their songs feature in movies and on soundtracks for video games and were nominated for 19 ARIA awards and won 2 ARIA awards from their nominations.
Quiet understandably from the above listed history, Spiderbait have developed a huge fan following over the last 30 years so when they announced they were going to be performing a show at the Forum Theatre of all their hit singles played in chronological order from their release, and in Melbourne only, it was sure to be a sell out!
Joining Spiderbait on this one performance show were bands Moody Beaches and Maddy Jane. Moody Beaches opened the show for the night. The band consists of 3 members hailing from La Bastard, Hot Wings and Sugarfiend and have come together to form their new band Moody Beaches. These three talented women brought their indie punk rock tunes to the stage and as the crowd poured into the Forum, they certainly enjoyed the set that these three women performed.
Maddy Jane hit the stage next with her set of indie pop rock tunes to the delight of the crowd. There were many a fan of Maddy Jane in the crowd as they sang along and danced to her songs. In the last 12 months Maddy has had extensive airplay on JJJ of her four singles and she has been touring extensively with names such as Tash Sultana, Polish Club, Luca Brasi and Harry Styles.
After the two supports the Forum was a full house and packed to the rafters all waiting in anticipation for Spiderbait to come out on stage. When it was time for Spiderbait to come on stage, the stage lit up with the spotlights and Kram, Whitt and English came out onto the stage welcomed with thunderous applause and cheering from the crowd.
Kram immediately took up his position at his drum kit, which was placed on a platform on the stage so everyone in the house could see him and he greeted the audience with an introduction of what the night was all about and what it would entail.
Kram continued to play MC throughout the night from his drum kit talking to the crowd between songs and coming down off his platform to come to the front of the stage and speak from Whitt’s or English’s microphones.
The first song to kick off the night was “Circle K” the bands very first single back in 1991. The crowd got right into the groove from the very first song. There was dancing, jumping, cheering and clapping. The energy from the crowd grew with every song. Several times Kram would stand up at his double bass drum kit and encourage the crowd to get louder and shout out.
Kram shared with the crowd some bits and pieces of the band’s history and their journey to where they are today and stories about the songs. He mentioned one very proud achievement of the band of their single “Buy Me A Pony” from their album “Ivy & The Big Apples” being the first Australian song ever to be voted by the listeners as number one on Triple J’s Hottest 100. Kram continued to say that it really set the benchmark and opened the doors for other Australian artists and their songs to be voted in Triple J’s Hottest 100 and reach the top 10 and number 1 position.
There were several songs in the set that have extremely heavy drums in them and Kram was really thrashing them out. Some songs were extended with a heavy drum solo and every time Kram played a hard long drum piece he would stand up from his kit, jump down off the platform (a few times taking some drums out and knocking them to the ground) and he would drop to his knees exhausted. Each time he did this the crowd would be screaming and cheering and going crazy. After a breather, Kram would stand up and come to the front of stage and place his hand to his heart and reach his other hand out in thanks. He would then jump on the nearby mic of Whitt or English and say thank you to everyone for their love and support.
One such moment while Kram was at the front of the stage, he noticed a fan in the front who had made a sign. Kram reached out from the front of the stage to grab the sign from the fan. He then held it up on stage above his head and it read “Kram Can I Please Get A Set of Stix”. Even though Kram couldn’t oblige at the time as he needed them to play, at the end of the set he did throw his sticks onto the stage and one rolled to the front and the security guard picked it up and handed it to the fan.
As the set went on there were some clear crowd favourites. Some stand outs were “Calypso”, “Black Betty” (which was played as a long-extended version) “Fucking Awesome” and “Straight Through the Sun”. Some songs saw moshing and crowd surfing within the crowd. Right at the end, Kram announced that he needed help with a song to get him through it as he wanted to do something he hadn’t done before. Kram then jumped into an absolute rip-roaring drum set where he was working overtime thrashing out several beats. Everyone was cheering at his solo and Whitt and English continued to play keeping up with the fast pace and smashing out some impressive riffs.
When Kram finished his piece, he stood up and came down to the front and went over to English and gave her a massive hug and he said, “I DID IT!”. He was so elated, proud and filled with joy. So much so it brought him to tears. He went to the edge of the platform of his drums to sit and take a breather while he had tears well up. He sat there listening to the thunderous applause of the crowd who were going crazy with gratitude. He then went over and gave Whitt a massive hug and then proceeded to hug every single other person on stage and a few people side of stage. Kram then came to the front of the stage and thanked everyone for their support and coming out and seeing them play.
Of course, after Kram, Whitt and English walked off stage the crowd kicked off with cheering and clapping and shouts of “one more song”. After a few minutes of thunderous cheering and shouting out, the three band members reappeared on stage and Kram announced they would do two more songs. Kram said the first song they would do was one of their favourite songs and would like to play it for everyone. The band kicked off and everyone started cheering to the familiar tune of “Our Lips Are Sealed” and English sung the song along with a full house of the Forum singing along with her.
After “Our Lips are Sealed” the crowd burst into a spontaneous chant of “Old Man Sam”. Kram then told the crowd, “if you want to participate in this song you gotta to do some singing”. The crowd responded with loud cheers. Kram then led the crowd in a sing a long back and forth leading into the start of “Old Man Sam”. As it was their last song for the night it was another song that was played out as an extended version of heavy drums and guitar riffs and a sing song back and forth.
When the band finally finished the last song of the night, Kram once again jumped down off his platform and gave Whitt and English massive hugs and they came to the front of the stage and took a final bow and wave.
It was such an epic night with such a mammoth play list of 26 songs!! For all those people in Melbourne who got to see this sold out show, they were an extremely lucky bunch as Spiderbait certainly turned out the goods for the evening making it extremely memorable for all. I’m sure this won’t be the one and only show of all their hit singles they will be doing. Fans (particularly in other states) will be screaming for more. Be sure if they do announce more shows you definitely get along to see them as it will sell out again and it is a night you will not forget.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Simone Tyrrell – Live Music Photography
