23/08/2026
Nerds & Music and Mic Conway with Robbie Long.
A short review by Michael Fine
Sunday 23 August '26 at the Troubadour CC
What a cracker! Two fabulous performances today for a full auditorium at the Club.
I'd been looking forward to this 'date with comedy' for months. It not only lived up to expectation, it went well beyond it. A great combination of bands, similar in their humour, different in their musical approach, but with one very important thing in common. They both gave us terrific performance - warm, funny, life affirming but with a strong, even stringently critical and satirical take on the contemporary techno market society we live in. It was a great program
Nerds and Music (composed of Clarke Gormley and Wayne Thomson, in equal parts) set the bar high, with a fabulous set of original songs. Like Lennon and McCartney, each songwriter/performer seemed to be inspired to produce a song that was even funnier and cleverer than his band mate. And like the Fab 4, they played guitar and bass guitar and sang in great harmony, articulating each word very clearly - important when so many of them are puns or other plays on words and phrases. What a delight. The audience were spellbound, except for the persistent laughter, cheers and regular sing-a-longs. Top notch!
Then, after interval, it was Mic and Robbie's turn. A vintage performance. Like the proverbial good w**e, Mic Conway has somehow found a way to get even better with age. What a smooth crooner he has become, or perhaps always was- but all those years ago we were too busy laughing, or perhaps too stoned Mic suggested, to appreciate it! Lucky, because so many in the audience had seen him before - many 40 or even 50 years before.
Robbie, on the jazz guitar and foot stomps, was the perfect accompanist, somehow substituting perfectly for the full National Junk Band of about 12 crazy instrumentalists that Mic so long directed. Captain Matchbox lives on in our hearts and minds, proving that you're never too old to enjoy brilliant musicianship, ridiculous magical tricks and great humour. Whooppee I say, to a life well lived and to four great musicians who enchanted us held us all spellbound all afternoon.
If you missed it, sorry! But there's a pretty good follow up. From this Thursday, 27 August, the film * about Mic and his brother Jim, directed by Fiona Cochrane, will be available on SBS On-Demand for for free view. Make sure you see it while you can! And don't forget to make sure you book for the next fabulous concert at Troubadour Folk, on the Central Coast, at Woy Woy.
*According to the official blurb, "Whoopee Blues is a joyful and emotional celebration of brotherhood, creativity, and the enduring legacy of two artists and their timeless contribution to Australian music history."
