The sweet life: You Am I at the Cambridge Hotel

Like an idiot, I had recently convinced myself that I can't be super excited by gigs anymore, and that while I love live music and bands and shows, I just can't muster up the same enthusiasm as I used to.

Turns out I just hadn't seen You Am I in a while.

I'm tired and sore but very satisfied with Sunday's show – You Am I at the Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle. I hadn't been to the Cambo in a while, and considering I used to frequent the venue back in the day, it felt a bit odd walking in there. However, I felt more at home as part of the packed house present by the time the band came on.

The support act, the Guppies, were pretty tight - a young band who slipped a few good covers into the set, like 'Last night' by the Strokes.

The band I came to see, however, were in the best shape I had seen them in a long time.

Let me put this into perspective: I first saw You Am I at Homebake in 2001, and since then, have been to nearly every tour, every one-off show, every festival appearance and/or every solo gig I could make it to, most of them with the only man I know who loves this band as much as I do (actually, scratch that, he loves them even more.. I don't have an entire drawer for all the You Am I paraphenalia I have collected over the years).

Lots of travel, many t-shirts, various pubs, a plethora of beers, litres of sweat and countless gigs in Newcastle, Maitland, the Central Coast, Sydney, Terrigal, Wollongong and Melbourne later; You Am I never fail to excite me with their sets. On this occasion especially they reminded me what a great live show sounds like.

Front man Tim Rogers, wearing a crisp white suit and matching cowboy hat, led the band through a pretty even split of old and new tracks that cracked right out of the amps. The band was tight, with excellent guitar tone and a near perfect mix, and Tim's voice and the band harmonies sitting in strong. The performance and Tim's patented moves were so energetic and genuine that the crowd reciprocated their enthusiasm in sweat and singing along. New tracks, like 'Pinpricks' and 'The ocean', sat seamlessly with older crowd favourites like 'Coprolalia' and 'Jaimme's got a gal', and after a sequence of nonstop rock ‘n’ roll the band finished their set with a ripping cover of 'Stranded' by the Saints. Even the encore closer, 'Berlin chair', which often feels obligatory (or at least the requests are) was flat out celebratory.

Like catching up with an old friend who's been working out, You Am I were in their best shape as a band, and Tim's voice was the strongest it's been in some time. That's not to say they don't put 100 percent into every show. They do. They just turned this one up to 11.


THE MOOSE