Cover photo by Stephanie F. Black
It was an Australian rock & roll spectacular “holiday” weekend in Brooklyn, in celebration of legendary & influential Brisbane, Australia ’70s experimental punk band The Saints.
At a sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 14, it was awesome to see the remaining founding members of The Saints, Ed Kuepper (guitar, vocals) & Ivor Hay (drums) play their first ever NYC show as the expanded The Saints ’73-78 with Mark Arm of Mudhoney on lead vocals in tribute to late founding lead singer Chris Bailey, and former Birthday Party / Bad Seeds founding member Mick Harvey (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Peter Oxley (of Australian ’80s post-punk/power pop band Sunnyboys) on bass/vocals, capped by a 3-piece horn section of Eamon Dilworth (trumpet), Julian Wilson (tenor sax), and Mark Spencer (baritone sax) in a swinging wall of sound rock & roll force in front of a crowd stuffed with many fine musicians/longtime fans who cherished the rare opportunity to hear these songs live for the first time. (Jack Rabid recently interviewed Keupper and Hay for The Big Takeover print magazine; the first part will be in the upcoming issue 97).
The Saints sprang forth in 1973 in musically-isolated Eastern Australia, building their melodic whipsaw sound from key influences of Detroit proto-punk The Stooges & The MC5, as well as U.S. R&B, British beat groups, and Aussie “Beatles” The Easybeats, along with their own venue to play in when no one would book them. After self-producing/releasing cracking 1976 debut single “(I’m) Stranded” (recognized as the first non-U.S. punk single), they signed to EMI, releasing three blistering LPs in 2 years— (I’m) Stranded (1977), Eternally Yours (1978), & Prehistoric Sounds (1978)— and moved to London, only to be dropped by the label after the 3rd LP disappointed commercially, after which the sonically adventurous Kuepper departed in 1979, forming Laughing Clowns and later The Aints, while Bailey continued in a more pop/rock vein until he died in 2022. While there had been occasional reunions of the original lineup in their home country, including when acolytes Nick Cave and Harvey curated All Tomorrow’s Parties in 2009, no Saints lineup had ever made it to North America.
The 47-year delay filled the room with moods of high anticipation and disbelief, which was met with the fantastic sound of Keupper’s frantic downstroke open-string strumming and Hay’s swinging/driving rhythm of vintage Saints. Arm channeled the spirit of his own influence Bailey, tunefully snarling & rasping the angsty, still-relevant social critique lyrics in a 19-song set of Saints classics including “This Perfect Day”, “Know Your Product” & “No, You’re Product”, “(I’m) Misunderstood”, & “Memories Are Made of This” from Eternally Yours (which comprised half the set). Harvey filled out the sound with his furious strumming & keyboard texture, Oxley’s bass boomed and swung, and the horn section filled in the sonic force pummel with emotional color.
Other highlights included Prehistoric Sounds faves “The Prisoner”, “Swing for the Crime”, and “Brisbane (Security City)”, as well as a feral “(I’m) Stranded” and its rocking b-side “No Time”, “Demolition Girl”, and the walloping controlled-cacophony encore finale of an expanded free jazz-flecked version of “Nights in Venice” from the debut LP. This tour, in support of In The Red Records’ 4 LP box set of all of The Saints’ ’70s recordings, may never happen again, so lucky fans in Europe & the U.K. should not miss out on the remaining November dates for this rare chance to witness the punk beatitude of The Saints ’73-‘78.
The Saints '73-'78 setlist:Swing for the Crime
No Time
This Perfect Day
Lost and Found
Memories Are Made of This
Private Affair
Brisbane (Security City)
Story of Love
The Prisoner
The Chameleon
No, Your Product
Run Down
Messin’ With the Kid
(I’m) Stranded
Know Your Product
Encore:
(I’m) Misunderstood
All Times Through Paradise
Demolition Girl
Nights in Venice
Wollongong, Australia post-punk duo Chimers were a great tour opener for The Saints ’73-‘78, with loud & spare riffing from Irish expat Padraic Skehan (vocals, guitar) and propulsive & galloping rhythm from his partner Binx (drums, vocals).
Then, after weekend break, it was special to see another side of Kuepper in his duo show with Brooklyn-via-Australia’s Jim White, the drummer of The Dirty Three and indie rock supergroup The Hard Quartet (I also saw him play great shows on tour with Bill Callahan and with Mary Margaret O’Hara), with Harvey opening in his first ever NYC solo show, in front of a room filled with many fans of The Saints who attended that spectacular concert a few days before.
Keupper & White originally planned their duo as a live experiment in 2020, but after a few well-received shows once Covid started breaking, they eventually recorded 2025 12XU Records LP After the Flood as an alternative history of Keupper’s prolific output with The Saints, Laughing Clowns, and solo efforts with a varied backing bands, in a more meditative guitar style that largely eschews the punky attack for winding riffs & distorted airy chords and his slow bluesy vocals, giving space for White’s expressive mix of punctuating percussion and jazzy propulsion to create a spellbinding atmosphere.
The crowd was hushed throughout as Kuepper sat in a chair surrounded by pedals, while White sat beside him, moving like a rhythm mime as he twirled sticks to land imaginative fills and unpredictable flourishes. Highlights included “Car Headlights” from Kuepper’s 1985 solo debut LP Electrical Storm, “Demolition” with White’s apropos collapsing crashes, the Dylan-ish “Messin’ Pt. II”, “Pavane”, and a boisterous version of The Saints’ “Swing for the Crime”, and Laughing Clowns’ “The Crying Dance” & “Enternally Yours”.
Ed Kuepper with Jim White Setlist:Miracles (Ed Kuepper and the Kowalski Collective cover)
The Ruins (Ed Kuepper song)
Everything That Flies (Is Not a Bird) (Laughing Clowns cover)
Demolition (Ed Kuepper and the Kowalski Collective cover)
Swing for the Crime (The Saints cover)
Messin’ Pt. II (Ed Kuepper song)
The Sixteen Days (Ed Kuepper song)
Pavane (Ed Kuepper song)
Come One, Come All (Laughing Clowns cover)
Collapse Board (Laughing Clowns cover)
The Crying Dance (Laughing Clowns cover)
Car Headlights (Ed Kuepper song)
Horse Under Water (Ed Kuepper song)
Win/Lose (Whirlywirld cover)
Eternally Yours (Laughing Clowns cover)
Encore:
Rue the Day (Ed Kuepper song)
Harvey’s set was eagerly anticipated and highlighted his well-earned reputation as a master interpreter of left-of-center songwriters, including four LPs worth of Serge Gainsbourg covers (he offered “Bonnie and Clyde” from the first one, 1995’s Intoxicated Man), and he played a couple of tunes from his 2025 LP Golden Mirrors, a collaboration with singer Amanda Acevedo that explores the oeuvre of brilliant-but-troubled American folk singer Jackson C. Frank, including a solo take of “Milk and Honey”, after which he brought out a late addition to the bill, lightly-rehearsed Queens, NYC-native and Swans touring member Paul Wallfisch, who previously worked with Harvey in a theater soundtrack project called The Ministry of Wolves, on keyboards for sonic color on the remainder of the 10-song set.
Harvey played a few originals—the nostalgic “When We Were Beautiful & Young”, the ghostly self-murder tale “The Ballad of Jay Givens”, & the jeremiad “Famous Last Words”— alongside the covers, including “Slow-Motion-Movie-Star”, a PJ Harvey (no relation) outtake she offered him to record for his 2007 LP Two of Diamonds. With his baritone croon that turned every lyric into a prophetic statement and his memorable ring & rumble strumming building melodic tension, Harvey silenced the room in awe when he played, but his arch & playfully contrary stage patter lightened the mood. Hopefully, his next NYC solo show will come sooner than the first!
Mick Harvey setlist:Milk and Honey (Jackson C. Frank cover)
When We Were Beautiful & Young
The Ballad of Jay Givens
Bethelridge (Robbie Fulks cover)
Night of the Blues (Jackson C. Frank cover)
Slow-Motion-Movie-Star (PJ Harvey cover)
A Suitcase in Berlin (Marlene Dietrich cover)
Famous Last Words
Bonnie and Clyde (Serge Gainsbourg cover)
Out of Time Man (Mano Negra cover)
