Fremantle was drenched in a heavy shower of Blues Rock music this week as Samantha Fish & Jesse Dayton closed in on the final shows of their Death Wish Blues Tour, a tour which they have been performing on and off for the last sixteen months.
Warming the crowd was local legend Lucky Oceans alongside David Milroy, with accompaniment from Howie Smallman, on harmonica. Ocean’s blended a fine collection of rearranged covers and originals, opening with The Stones ‘Can’t Always Get What You Want’. Littered between the songs were tales of travels and influences as Lucky switched between his trusted pedal steel guitar and his resonator throughout the set. Big Joe Williams’ ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ encouraged plenty of foot tapping as the crowd closed in on the stage. One of the stand out originals was ‘Music is the Colour of my Skin’, showing Ocean’s talents as a song writer. ‘Shorty George’ & ‘Green Ginger Wine’ brought the set to a close with the crowd anticipation building.
We didn’t have too wait long, but long enough to raid the merch table which quickly sold out of the limited vinyls & CDs that were on sale. With just two shows to go, in Adelaide & Melbourne respectively this really was a ‘one night only’ chance to see this wonderful Grammy-nominated album played in almost its entirety, along with a heap of welcomed surprises. The night started with a bang as Fish, Dayton and their musical entourage smashed into MC5’s ‘Kick Out the Jam’ before launching into their collaborative album’s opening track ‘Deathwish’.
We delved into where it all started, with a couple of songs from The Stardust Sessions, firstly with ‘Feelin Good’ before Dayton got his chance to have a bit a fun with ‘Brand New Cadillac’. These were nicely bookended either side of a track that highlighted Samantha’s fabulous vocal talents as she delivered a soulful ‘Hello Stranger’ from her 2017 album ‘Chills & Fever’.
The natural musical chemistry oozed from the Fremantle stage as sideways glances and smirks aplenty could be seen as the fun continued. “How ya’ll doin’ Fremantle?” yelled Fish to the jubilant crowd, many of which had been blown away by Samantha’s performance during her previous visit back in February last year. ‘Settle For Less’ dripped in class as the guitarist’s play, teased and toyed not only with the crowd but with each other, with Fish tearing into ‘Bulletproof’ as she brought out the cigar box guitar for the first time tonight, an instrument with more grunt than a heavy weight boxer.
A trio of Deathwish tracks followed; ‘Down in the Mud’, ‘No Apology’ and ‘Trauma’ before the band exited to leave Jesse & Samantha to shoulder their acoustic guitars before delivering two beauties in the form of ‘I’ll Be Here in The Morning’ and ‘Baby’s Long Gone’, released last year by Dayton.
Grunt time as the cigar box came out to roar into ‘Rippin’ and Runnin’ before we were treated to the funk-laden ‘Supadupabad’. Tonight’s goosebump moment was brought with Samantha Fish’s cover of ‘I Put a Spell on You’, as Freo.Social held is breath to enjoy the talents of one of the worlds top guitarists squeeze the life out of her instrument… and what a solo! Deep Purple’s ‘7 and 7 is’ was simply brilliant before they closed with ‘Riders’.
The shouts of “more” billowed around the venue before the throng returned to play two more songs. ‘Know My Heart’ brings a tinge of country to the set and was a nice mellower one to bring in but we weren’t to not go out kicking and screaming – a fantastic cover of R.L Burnside’s ‘Going Down South’ closed the night. There is just one more chance to catch this fabulous show with just a few tickets available for this Saturday’s gig at Melbourne’ Corner Hotel – Tickets HERE!
Big thanks to Samantha & Jesse for heading out to sign merch & have photos with every single fan who stayed back, especially after such a ripping show!
With thanks to Gerrard Allman Events and Annie Johnsson Publicity for your hospitality and media access.
Photos by Mark Diggins
