Wednesday May 15, The Gov.
May 15, the night Evermore came to Adelaide, was a bitingly cold one. The entire day had been subject to a torrential downpour of rain, and making the short journey from the car to The Gov involved jumping over many a puddle. But once we were inside and Evermore took to the stage, any thoughts about the dreary climate outside were swept away in an hour of simple, fun pop-rock music and fondly remembered hits.
Evermore, hailing from New Zealand and now residing in Melbourne, are in the middle of an enormous, extensive national tour to promote their new album, Follow The Sun.
It’s their first tour and album since the Hume brothers took a lengthy hiatus to live normal lives, start families and embark on personal projects. When I spoke to Peter Hume a few weeks ago, he gushed about how excited they all were to be making music again. It showed on Wednesday night.
This is a band who’ve experienced enormous success, and have come out the other side making and playing music for no other reason than a pure love of making and playing music.
Wednesday night’s set was divided fairly evenly between new material and old hits. The classics ﹣ such as “Running” and “Light Surrounding You” ﹣ slotted in perfectly amongst new songs like “Follow The Sun” and “Hey My Love”. The characteristics that unite Evermore’s songs, new and old, are a tendency towards good hooks, simple structures and straightforward melodies. These were songs aimed at getting you singing and dancing along, with nothing else in the way.
However, straightforward pop songs do not make a good show by themselves. It takes a band with some serious enthusiasm and energy to get a crowd up and moving, and Evermore had that in droves.
Lead singer Jon gave a strong vocal while bouncing around the stage and interacting with the crowd, while Peter, on guitar and keyboard duties, couldn’t wipe the smile off his face if he tried.
The boys weren’t afraid to have some fun with the show either. They competed in a “drum-off” at the start of “Follow The Sun”, and Jon jumped into the crowd during “Hey Boys and Girls” and took selfies with some lucky punters before jumping off of the drum kit.
As good as the new material sounded, the crowd’s biggest responses were saved for the well-known and well-loved older hits, to which everyone in the room clapped along, waved their hands and sang out loud. Evermore never missed a note or a beat, and had a load of fun while doing it.
All around, it was a thoroughly enjoyable gig from a re-energised and re-focused band. I can only hope Evermore do as their album says, and follow the sun to somewhere a bit calmer and warmer than the freezing, blustering rain we had to offer.
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