ESKIMO JOE is gearing up to celebrate the 20th anniversary of breakthrough album Black Fingernails, Red Wine with a national capital city tour that reaches back through time to venues the band played in their younger days.
And in a move that feels both symbolic and deeply personal, the very first stop will be in Fremantle, at Freo.Social May 1-2, the reborn Fly By Night Club where they frequently played.
The tour, announced earlier this month, will see the band perform their 2006 album, as well as a list of curated classics.
• Eskimo Joe: Stu McLeod, Kav Temperley and Joel Quartermaine. Photo supplied
The album, which debuted at number one on the Aria albums chart and went four-times platinum, features the lead single of the same name, which won Single of the Year at the 2006 ARIAs, number two on Triple J’s 2006 Hottest 100, and 78th on Triple J’s Hottest 100 of Australian Songs.
“For us, albums have always been intentional,” guitarist Stu McLeod says.
“We want a storyline, light and shade, dynamics from start to finish.
“These days it’s such a single-song society, it’s rare to experience a record front to back, even just as a listener.
“Revisiting that in a live setting feels important.”
Launching the tour in Fremantle wasn’t just convenient – with two of the three members being based here- it was also important to the band.
“It’s pretty wild,” McLeod says.
“We’ve played so many shows at the old Fly By Night, and Freo.Social have done an amazing job decking the place out.
The PA is incredible, the vibe is great… it just made sense to start this two-decades celebration in the town that spawned us.”
The venues they’ll perform at emphasise their intensions to revisit the iconic spaces that defined their rise, like Melbourne’s Corner Hotel and Sydney’s Metro Theatre.
Starting in Fremantle places the tour not only in their hometown, but inside a very formative venue for them.
• The band want to pay tribute to the venues that put their name in lights.
Looking back, McLeod says the road to Black Fingernails, Red Wine involved years of refining their skills.
“There was just something in the air,” he said.
“Those first EPs were terrible in terms of songwriting craft,” he said.
“By Girl, we were making the music we wanted to listen to, but we still had a lot to learn.”
Working with producer Ed Buller across their early albums sharpened their skills, and gave the band the confidence that would define their mid-2000s era.
“The first record has this innocence and whimsy I really love, and the second record had glimpses of that emerging confidence.
Bands around us were making waves internationally and had this widescreen sound.
“It pushed us.”
That wider, cinematic sonic palette would become a hallmark of Black Fingernails, Red Wine.
• At the halfway mark: Eskimo Joe back in 2013.
Also announced is Alex Lloyd joining the band for the tour.
“We were thinking of artists from that same era of our lives,” McLeod says.
“We toured with him very early on.
“He was gracious, generous… just a great person to be around.
“He’s an amazing songwriter with a great voice, so it felt like the perfect pairing.”
The band was committed to choosing an Australian act, not an international opener, because spotlighting local music has always been a priority.
“We’ve always wanted to promote Australian music, especially WA music,” McLeod said.
“When it came time to think about supports, we wanted someone we actually had a connection with, and that was him.”
While longtime fans might be wondering whether new material is on the way, McLeod says the creative process is dictated more by practicality than inspiration.
“Inspiration strikes at the oddest times,” he says.
“It’s not about feeling inspired; it’s about whether we’re all in the same place at the same time.”
Song ideas do still surface while they’re on the road – “the guitar comes out if someone’s got an idea” – but proper writing requires planning.
“There’s always things brewing,” McLeod said, “but no plans to make a cup of coffee.”
Despite global musical influences in their youth, McLeod says one of the band’s most defining pushes came from a fellow WA group.
“Jebediah inspired us to enter a band competition,” he says. “We didn’t even have a band.
Genesis
“We formed one just so we could enter.
“We ended up winning the National University Band Competition, and that was the genesis of taking ourselves seriously.”
With Black Fingernails, Red Wine still etched into Australia’s mid-2000s soundtrack, Eskimo Joe’s return to the venues that shaped them makes the 20th-anniversary tour feel like more than a celebration, but also a reconnection.
“It just made sense to start where it all began,” McLeod said.
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by ELVIE TAYLOR