It's been a long time since I bought that Postcard Records single and first release for the Go-Betweens 'I need Two Heads' and finally seeing one of the driving forces of that band live.
It's been a journey since those years of the Go-Betweens producing critically acclaimed albums but somehow success seeming forever out of reach. Solo careers with the same outcome, the return of the Go-Betweens then the death of Grant Mclennan, more solo music. Throughout Robert Forster has continued to produce interestingly offbeat songs with an angularity and an increasingly poignant feel.
So I find myself, finally, in a venue to see this singular talent on tour to sing the songs from his latest album 'The Candle and the Flame'. It's Robert backed by his son Louis on guitar and bass.
The night features the bulk of the new album from the biting punkiness of 'She's a Fighter' to the reflectiveness of 'Tender Years' and 'The Roads'. The new songs sit well with the revisited Go-Betweens songs that are scattered through the set, 'Spring Rain' and 'Rock'n'Roll Friend' get a warm reception but the new songs do too 'There's a Reason to Live' and 'When I was a Young Man' capture the mood well. As a writer I've always felt listening to his songs that they sound like short fiction, its like Raymond Carver or Sam Shepard had put their stories to music. Robert maintains an easy and droll banter with the audience throughout and seems genuinely moved by how warmly he is received. He finishes the night with 'Head Full of Steam' and everyone goes away happy.
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