Hoodoo Gurus are a good-time rock pop band from Australia that feature great 90’s era college rock vocals in Dave Faulkner. In the late 80’s and early 90’s they had a string of snappy, slightly quirky, psychedelic, accessible singles, such as “Come Anytime” and “Miss Freelove ’69′” that lent themselves for constant rotation on college radio.
Although Hoodoo Gurus enjoyed a fair amount of success stateside, I suspect that they were on the cusp of quite a bit more extensive success in the US but The Smithereens came out and stole their thunder having similar type vocals and sound. The Smithereens, being from New Jersey, appealed to the then burgeoning “shop local” set that was prevalent at the time. This must have been a bitter irony to Hoodoo Gurus since Australia is the ‘New Jersey’ of Europe.
Snarky commentary aside,I don’t know much of anything about The Hoodoo Gurus but decided to check out this show based on the memories of hearing them on the radio in the late 80s. I was surprised how many songs I knew and more surprised that the substantial crowd at the show was enthusiastic for nearly everything they played. I even overheard someone saying “The Gurus are my all-time favorite band”.
Fun show.
Download: Hoodoo Gurus – What’s My Scene (Live)
[jwplayer config=”CustomPlayerAudio” file=”http://www.thesoundofindie.com/archive/2010/20101103/Hoodoo-Gurus-WhatsMyScene.mp3″]
I saw the Smithereens and the Gurus together at the Mud Island Amphitheater sometime in ’89. It was a Memphis State homecoming concert. Was so loud you couldn’t really hear anything, but it was a still a ton of fun.
College sponsored shows with terrible sound – now that is bringing back memories.
Smithereens and Hoodoo Gurus at the same show? Interesting. I find that they are fairly similar bands in many ways. Whatever the case, after seeing Hoodoo Gurus, they are hard not to like. I will definitely catch them again if they come around.