WHEN The Go Betweens disbanded in 1989, leaving six excellent albums for posterity, discerning music fans declared it the end of an era. The two pronged songwriting attack of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan gave the Australian band their melodic and lyrical integrity, but it wasn't enough to give them the success they deserved. When Robert Forster re emerged with his debut solo album, Danger In The Past, the fans saw a light leading towards a brighter future.
Forster returned to Dublin last Thursday night and the faithful pushed towards the Mean Fiddler stage to catch every nuance and subtlety of the tall man's gentle yet trenchant tunes. The singer stood onstage in a stylish yellow suit looking like an indie Jonathan Ross, but when he performed his uniquely oblique tunes he seemed more like Australia's answer to Richard Thompson.
Forster strummed tentatively on his Stratocaster, backed by the jaunty bass playing of Adele Pickvance and the ruffled drumming of Glenn Thompson, but his tunes showed a refreshing temerity, and they displayed a stark, candid strength without pushing into overdrive.
Sometimes the songs sound like works in progress, so sparse are the arrangements, but Forster has the intuition to know when an idea has reached completion, and he seldom labours the point, letting the song go where it will. I've Been Looking For Somebody states its case clearly, fading into the distance with its dignity intact, while Cryin' Love matches innocence with all too vivid experience. Heart Out To Tender chugs along on a railroad riff, then derails any romantic notions of coming home.
After Forster had finished his laid back but lucid set he was called back for no less than four encores, and he took the opportunity to mix solo songs like 2541 and Atlanta Lie Low with vintage Go Betweens' material like Head Full of Steam, Rock n Roll Friend and Karen. "I'm not a playboy or a poet", sings Forster in Atlanta Lie Low, and who are we to argue? Let's just say he's a poet in playboy's clothing.
