Paul Dempsey Lights Up QPAC with a Masterclass in Covers
- Ben Preece
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Paul Dempsey, Carla Geneve
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
Friday, 14th November 2025
Photos: @somefx
Words: @p.re.e.c.e
Brisbane is under attack from Mother Nature tonight, with one spectacular electrical storm lighting the sky for the entirety of the trip across town. The car is pulled over to the side of the road at least three times in fifteen minutes as vision beyond the bonnet becomes impossible. It’s top-shelf stressful, to say the least, but eventually the car is safely tucked into the South Bank parking lot, and the rest of the journey is made on foot to QPAC — specifically the Concert Hall — thanks to some overly helpful usher-types.
Albany, Western Australia’s Carla Geneve opens the night with a short but beautifully polished set, standing with her acoustic guitar unless she’s shifting to the keys. Her voice carries a quiet intensity as it floats around the edges of QPAC’s famously pristine Concert Hall. She greets the crowd and thanks them for being on her side — a sweet, grounding moment, because it must be daunting to open for such a beloved figure. This is not necessarily a crowd that came to see a support act. Still, she more than earns her place, pairing raw feeling with melodic clarity, poetic lyrics with simple execution. The set spans three releases before she closes with Tina Turner’s ‘Simply The Best’ — “in the spirit of Shotgun Karaoke,” she confesses — finally letting her full voice lift the room.
Paul Dempsey’s glowing reputation for performing a cover precedes him by several kilometres. He’s undertaken (and nailed) triple j’s Like A Version six times — three solo, three with Something For Kate. Whether those performances crowned him king of the cover song is unclear, but he now has two Shotgun Karaoke albums under his belt. Like tonight’s setlist, they brim not with any old versions, but genuinely interesting songs — impeccably written appears to be the entry requirement — and often the choices come with deeper stories.
Casually strolling onstage in a suit, boots, and an Elvis-esque cowlick, he cuts a striking figure. The crowd seems almost startled to see him and erupts into rapturous applause. He quickly jokes that the QPAC Concert Hall can feel “a little too polished” for this kind of loose affair, but tonight’s choose-your-own-adventure setlist ought to be met with rowdy behaviour. He declares he won’t be announcing each cover, so a competitive game of “guess-the-song-the-fastest” quickly unravels between my friend and me.
The opening chords of MGMT’s ‘Time To Pretend’ ring out, revealed properly only when Dempsey leans into the first line. Throughout the night, his understated dexterity on the guitar is something to marvel at, and that voice — subtle, surprising, and seemingly capable of anything — feels dialled in from somewhere slightly otherworldly.
The rabid audience shouts requests, and many seem to know what’s coming before it lands. ‘Losing My Religion’ appears early, followed by ‘Bette Davis Eyes’. It’s remarkable what this one man and a guitar can do. He is the consummate performer and gentleman, and he shines when taking on songs made famous by female vocalists. The highlight-heavy set covers Bright Eyes, Concrete Blonde, Wilco and Springsteen — and with each turn, he reveals something new. The opening strums of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Last Goodbye’ cause a momentary collective intake of breath, but there’s no need for concern. He nails it.
He tears through the canon like they’re his own — and that’s the magic of the night. These aren’t covers. They’re Paul Dempsey interpretations, stripped to wire and timber, designed to showcase the bones of truly great songwriting.
Some moments rise even higher than the rest: an elegant nod to World Party (‘Ship of Fools’), a devastatingly beautiful ‘Against All Odds’ that pulls every last thread of longing out of Phil Collins’ melody (dedicated to a rowdy, possibly a bit tipsy Bernard Fanning in the audience wearing a Paul Dempsey trucker cap — because Brisbane), and a show-stopping take on ‘Life On Mars?’.
Then Carla Geneve returns, and they perform Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’, eye-to-eye... well, almost — he is six foot seven after all. The Concert Hall reacts accordingly.
‘Never Tear Us Apart’, ‘Berlin Chair’ and ‘Ship of Fools’ continue to raise the bar until it arguably peaks with the jaw-dropping, almost reverent take on Sam Brown’s ‘Stop!’ that earns one of the loudest reactions of the night. An equally impressive cover of Cher’s ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ closes out the main set with spectacle.
But that’s almost nothing compared to Max Q’s ‘Way Of The World’ opening the encore. A Michael Hutchence and Ollie Olsen side project, it’s a proper “if you know, you know” song, and tonight’s inclusion undoubtedly introduces it to many new fans. And then, onto “the greatest song ever written” — and just one of the reasons Wayfarers became so popular — ‘Boys of Summer’ rounds out the show with a roar. Other cities got his own ‘Ramona Was a Waitress’ in their sets, but that’s just nitpicking at this stage.
Why Paul Dempsey — a man with such a revered catalogue of originals — chooses to take on albums and tours of covers remains something of a mystery. Many great songwriters say that a sojourn into masterfully written, tried, tested and enduring songs can reinvigorate their own writing. If that’s the case, then kudos to Dempsey for indulging the practice — and for keeping his own songwriting accountable in the process.
Regardless, Shotgun Karaoke might be framed as a covers project, but in practice it’s a flex: a songwriter and vocalist at the peak of his interpretive powers, reshaping old favourites without ever sanding off their soul. By the end, the room is washed through — nostalgic, energised, slightly dazed — and cheering for a man who just made other people’s songs feel brand new.
