Hits and (occasionally hazy) memories. Not the first, and not the last, live appreciation of The You Am I’s.

YOU AM I

Enmore Theatre

Roughly, I’ve probably seen 10,000 bands. A hundred good ones. A dozen great ones.

And one You Am I.

And this night, a sense of occasion - as your favourite band play the two records that mean so much too so many. Most present having such an investment in Hourly Daily and/or Hi Fi Way Tim Rogers probably didn’t need to sing at all - we knew the words anyway.

Some quibbled these recitals occurring in reverse order – discussions of the albums’ relative merits went on endlessly at nearby bars before and after the show. But Hourly Daily is an arc, an entity. Coloured with brass, cello, and video backdrops of the inner-west Sydney it is so much of, there’s even greater resonance merely because you’re there. “This song was written about 12 minutes’ walk from here…,” as Rogers reflected at one point. There’s a hundred couples in the audience who were those puzzled lovers of If We Can’t Get It Together. How many of them here are still together another question entirely. We’ll avoid those now-ex’s in the interval, as the band dispense with the scarves and checkered pants look for the second act.

For Hi Fi Way is a rock and roll record, played by a magnificent rock and roll band, in increasingly sweat-soaked t-shirts. A shudder of volume went through the place as Jewels And Bullets roared. If not entirely lost in the moment, marvel at just how good Russell Hopkinson is as the cymbals shimmer and splash, while Andy Kent’s bass strolls and heartbeats. Davey Lane is a young rooster strutting. Purple Sneakers is still every inner-west girl you’ve ever kissed. And How Much Is Enough? the perfect fullstop.

Encore? Sure. A divebombing Sound As Ever, a sprawling (literally and figuratively) Young Man Blues, Berlin Chair’s sparkle and shatter. Plus thanks, and advice from that guy with the guitar and the blue crushed-velvet trousers: “Take risks. Get out of your comfort zone. Fuck yourself up…” And “Be excellent to each other…”. In turn Rogers promises this band “Will keep making mistakes for you”. Long may they do so.