Powderfinger
Clipsal 500 After party - Adelaide

22 February 2008

Well alleluia Adelaide is Alive and buzzing with festivals and car racing! It is so good to be a part of the crazy time at this time of the year.

OK I admit I am not a car racing fan and I hold no allegiance to either Ford or Holden, but I do love the fact that a V8 car race can bring 4 nights of constant concerts to my lovely state! While there were shows on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Friday night was the one that grabbed my attention. Powderfinger, Kiss Chasey and Expatriate were the headline acts. I unfortunately missed Powderfinger when they did the 'Across the Great Divide' concerts with Silverchair so thought that the Clipsal 500 concert was the perfect way to rectify that!

The show started just after 7pm with an Adelaide Band named 'Special Patrol' I have not heard of them before, but they have apparently been doing the band scene around Adelaide for a few years. What a great opportunity for them to be a support band and to perform and get noticed by the people of Adelaide.

Next Expatriate came on, I have seen these guys around usually as a back up but admittedly not taken too much interest. They seemed to have a genuine fan base in the crowd and performed impressively. I did not know too many of their songs but nether less was entertained by their performance.

Kiss Chasey were next up, and were great performers. They kept the growing crowds attention and sang their songs with passion and and enthusiasm that you would expect at a live out door show. Kiss Chasey I guess had the advantage of coming on just before Powderfinger - most of the audience had arrived from their spots on the track, the alcohol had kicked in and people were there for a party atmosphere and everyone really wanted to see Powderfinger.

When Powderfinger finally walked on stage you could feel the electricity in the air. These guys have a number of hit songs and they treated the audience to all of them. They encouraged the audience to participate in singing 'My Happiness' and the noise from the audience was amazing. I was near the front of the stage but wonder how far away the crowd could be heard.

The show was threatened by the rain that decided it could not hold out any longer, and seriously I did not see a single person move - a few umbrellas went up (which is a crazy thing to do with people jammed in so tight at a concert) but Bernard Fanning and his boys just kept on singing and performing as if they were playing on a summers day.

They sang all of their hits such as 'Lost and running', 'These Days', 'Love Your Way' and the climax was the encore with '(Baby Ive got you) On My Mind'. I was truly entertained by Powderfinger as was the thousands of others that got to witness a truly fantastic all Australian act. I walked away from the concert with a husky voice from too much singing and screaming but continued on till the wee hours with the fringe opening party which was also being held in the cities east end!