Without a doubt, we think that every Australian in San Francisco was at Bottom of the Hill last Wednesday to rock it out with Australia's hit band, Eskimo Joe. We speculated when we first walked in but weren't positive - the "background" music was too loud to actually positively i.d. an accent. Halfway through the show the lead singer, Kavyen Temperley, asked for all the Australians in the house to scream. We were the only ones who weren't screaming. (Okay, okay so there were a few others - meaning like three.) Apparently Eskimo Joe hasn't caught on as much as it has across the Pacific but we positively, 100% think it should.

We featured Eskimo Joe in our weekly column a few weeks ago and stated that "Hands down, one of the best CD's of 2007." We still completely agree with that sentiment - even more so, now. Eskimo Joe played mostly songs from their current release, Black Fingernails, Red Wine with a couple of songs from their first record, A Song is a City. We have a feeling that the band members are used to rocking it out in huge venues with thousands of fans since their performance had such a great energy and was significantly polished especially compared to self-absorbed opener, Jeff Klein. (Yikes!)

"Now we shall rock," Temperley said at the beginning of the show and he did exactly as promised - he rocked. His vocals were spot on and the talent oozing from every band member was impressive. (Joel Quartermain, the guitarist, at one point played simultaneously with the pianist and then moved on to play with the drummer as well.) "London Bombs" and "New York" were highlights of the performance but "Black Fingernails, Red Wine," the title track, was definitely the show-stopper which finished out their perfect set. Stars of the Track and Field headlined the show (and they were pretty good - we downloaded their CD today) but they seemed to get completely overshadowed by the real stars: Eskimo Joe.

Picture taken by author

Take the jump to check out videos from the concert...