Fanning Dempsey National Park brought the love and warmed the hearts of the tepid audience at the Civic Theatre on Friday night as part of The Deluge regional tour.
Australian rock royalty, the charismatic Bernard Fanning of Powderfinger fame and Paul Dempsey, the frontman and songwriting powerhouse from Something For Kate, have joined forces to create an incredible album, The Deluge, as Fanning Dempsey National Park. The pair showcased it for the first time to an expectant Hunter audience, who came in from the cold and rain on Friday night to take refuge in a night, with an undeniable talent for songwriting, stagecraft and performance.
At the start of their night an on their best behaviour, because that’s what you do in a sit-down theatre, the crowd lapped up the support set of local songstress Jen Buxton, before Fanning and Dempsey thawed the crowd with a set that showcased the brilliance of their first album as a group, and included magnetic reworkings of some of their best works as solo artists and from their Powferfinger and Something for Kate days.
PHOTO: Juan Mahony
With both Dempsey and Fanning singing parts of each other’s iconic songs including Dempsey’s Ramona Was a Waitress, the Something for Kate anthem Monsters, Powderfinger’s breakthrough single Pick You Up and the ever-popular Wish You Well from Fanning’s chart-topping solo album, the crowed were lured in to pay closer attention to the incredible work that is The Deluge.
The Deluge deserves all the praise of critics and fans in the way Dempsey and Fanning pay reverence to their Powderfinger and Something for Kate roots and their first musical loves, with synth vibes, shredding guitar solos, earworm melodies and lyrics, all woven together with their iconic voices in a way that makes the 80s seem cool again.
Starting their set with the catchy title track The Deluge and taking in most of the tracks, including a soring version of their latest single King Pumpkin, there were undoubtedly people in the audience who were lured to the Civic because of their love of Dempsey or Fanning, or for their work as frontmen for two of Australia’s biggest rock bands. But they would have left the theatre that night wanting to know more about the work of Fanning Demspey National Park, as something distinct, yet familiar, and is a testament to the talent and obvbious love that Dempsey and Fanning have for music, their craft and having a chance to perform and be applauded for their irrepressable talents.
Paul Dempsey’s talent for morphing well-known songs into something more than just a cover was also paraded throughout the night to the delight of the warmed-up audience, who were taken back to their youths with a fantastic reimgaining of Nik Kershaw’s Wouldn’t It Be Good and Fanning and Dempsey’s spine-tingling homage to the Queen and Bowie classic, Under Pressure to close the memorable show, with Dempsey’s soaring vocals a standout of the night.
Local photographer, Juan Mahony, was there to capture the show too, and you can see a gallery of his photos below.
