Salient

Live Review-Supergroove

By Tom Baragwanath | 10 Mar, 2008

Monday 3rd March, Student Union Building

There’s not too much to say about Supergroove’s orientation gig, really. They turned up and gave the crowd what they wanted, end of story. Not that that’s by any means a bad thing.

I didn’t actually make it for opening act the Aviators (I was too busy skirting around the Loaded Hog thinking “so, where’s the gig?” You’d think a music editor would know about the venue switch, but hey), but by all accounts they warmed the crowd up well.

Local lads Odessa really got things going with their loud, lively funk. In particular, ‘Promises, Promises’ and ‘I Could Beat You In a Fight’ were real crowd pleasers. It’s hard to tell whether or not falsetto frontman Matthew Pender loves himself too much, or just really loves Prince.

Supergroove were everything everyone expected; loud, tight, funky and energetic. Leaping into their set with ‘Next Time’, they quickly showed that time has done nothing to change their cohesiveness as a group or their ability to get a crowd going at full momentum. Karl Stevens can still play a mean harmonica.

From here on they ran through most of their singles in a fairly predicable fashion. We were treated to early single ‘Here Comes the Supergroove’, as well as ‘You Gotta Know’. Also thrown into the mix was the all-too-familiar ‘Chains’ by Che Fu, the soft tones of which was a nice reprieve from the overthe- top energy of the Supergroove material. And yes, they saved ‘Scorpio Girls’ for the end.

Supergroove are still great – Karl Stevens is still the energetic skinny man he used to be, and Che Fu still knows how to get a crowd eating out of his hand. The horns are still spot on, and the rhythm section still lays out the beat like nothing else. In other words, Supergroove are still Supergroove, meaning that they’ll always find a fan base at a university gig. Hell, we grew up on this stuff.

You’ve got to wonder, though, how enjoyable are these reunion gigs for the band? Maybe something a little less predictable and a little more challenging would be more rewarding for them? Not that I’m complaining, mind you. And neither were the rest of the crowd.