There’s something beautifully unguarded about seeing Paul Dempsey alone on a stage with nothing but a guitar, a thousand songs rattling around in his head, and a packed out room willing to follow him anywhere.

Paul Dempsey, Kaitlin Keegan

The Altar Bar, Hobart

Saturday, 16th May 2026

Words & Photos by Annette Geneva

At Hobart's Altar Bar on a regular Saturday night, his Shotgun Karaoke Vol. II show feels less like a concert and more like being trapped inside somebody’s late-night radio frequency (especially since Paul is bothered by a high-frequency sound on stage that literally no one else can hear). One where the host is funny, melancholic, wildly talented, and keeps accidentally, or maybe intentionally, cracking his own heart open between covers.

The whole night has this strange orbit around memory and growing older.

Kaitlin Keegan: Small Songs, Big Feelings

Kaitlin Keegan opens with songs that feel like diary pages left exposed on train seats. Hailing from Perth, there are a lot of Perth-specific references, a lot of heartache and growing pains in these songs. She opens with a song called 'Ghosting' about quietly leaving the party without saying goodbye.

'Go easy on yourself, kid' offers a hand on the shoulder to her inner child while '20 Something' carries Perth to Melbourne in its suitcase. 'Bassendean Station' hits hardest though, childhood made turbulent and tender at the same time, wrapped around a Perth train station and a beautiful new video clip. Then there's 'Magpie', built from a poem and stretched into something mournful about time sprinting ahead while you’re still trying to tie your shoes. I really enjoy an unreleased song of hers. I miss the name of it, but the lyrics really imprint themselves in my brain: “That makes me feel like a psycho, so I sit defeated on a sidewalk.” Kaitlin’s version of Johnny Cash’s 'Ring of Fire' is also wonderful.

Paul Dempsey: One Very Tall Human Jukebox

The room becomes hot and sweaty by the time Paul Dempsey appears on stage. The usual comments of people standing next to me are: “Good Lord, he’s tall” and “I hope he plays 'Captain'.”

Paul wanders through songs the way some people wander through old photo albums, diary entries or newspapers. Opening with 'Losing My Religion', he soon rolls into my absolute favourite Sugar/Bob Mould track 'If I Can’t Change Your Mind', which is honestly the reason I bought this album on vinyl. Paul plays it so incredibly well, especially live.

Sprinkled with Bruce Springsteen's 'Atlantic City', impossible not to sing along to. The fourth song of the night is 'Light Pollution' by Bright Eyes, perfectly suited to be played while Conor & Co are doing anniversary shows in the USA. After playing, Paul asks if anybody even knows it. The room goes dead quiet except for me yelling “YEAH” and Paul just laughs and goes, “Great. One person.” Which honestly feels like the most Bright Eyes moment imaginable. Tiny beautiful songs surviving in the heads of emotionally damaged people like endangered birds.

'Jesus, Etc.' by Wilco, off the only Wilco album I own. Honestly, the Jeff Tweedy tribute feels so fitting to Paul Dempsey’s general vibe. I’m hoping we get some Neil Young tonight as well.

But then suddenly he’s talking about the unbearable high-frequency noise outside a Whole Foods supermarket in Austin, Texas where he once played a show on a stage on the back of a truck and apparently only certain Australians and birds can hear the aforementioned noise and everyone thinks he’s nuts. The entire room is laughing because Paul Dempsey has mastered the art of turning observational nonsense into existential philosophy.

The Bowie crowd vote becomes its own tiny civil war between 'Space Oddity', 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' before 'Ashes to Ashes' wins and everyone looks quietly pleased with themselves.

Paul’s version of Jeff Buckley’s 'Last Goodbye' feels almost dangerous in how delicate it is. Then somehow we ricochet into Kim Carnes’ 'Bette Davis Eyes', Pearl Jam’s 'Better Man', Queen’s 'I Want to Break Free' and Don Henley’s 'Boys of Summer', like somebody shaking a jukebox until all the ghosts fall out.

By the time everyone sings along to INXS’ 'Never Tear Us Apart' and some Phil Collins, the room feels stitched together. Strangers harmonising under dim lights while outside Hobart keeps being cold and dark and itself.

The best moments are the tiny Tassie-specific detours. Jokes about road signs where everything is in brackets. Little muttered asides. The crowd yelling things out like old friends around a kitchen table. I do wonder if Paul gets his requested “written explanation of Tasmanian road signs”, because we clearly do things differently at the bottom of the world.

Then suddenly it’s encore time and a heavy Leonard Cohen cover arrives. The room goes still again.

And that’s the thing with Paul. Even on a tour built around covers, he keeps accidentally revealing himself. In the spaces between 'If I Could Change Your Mind' and Something for Kate’s 'Captain (Million Miles an Hour)', between jokes and crowd votes and forgotten lyrics, you realise his songs have always been about distance. Time. Static. The weirdness of surviving your twenties and thirties and somehow still feeling sixteen when the right melody hits. The crowd bathed in nostalgia, singalongs and apparently being polite.

It’s lovely hearing 'Fast Friends'. It takes me back to 2009. Fun fact: the first time I met Paul was on the set of filming the video for 'Fast Friends' in the basement of a Bondi Beach restaurant. I was tjere shooting some stills behind the scenes.

Without a doubt, this tour is special. You are still seeing Paul Dempsey as Paul Dempsey, but he’s a more relaxed version of himself. A mix of a national treasure and a cover band. A karaoke night run by poets instead of extroverts maybe. An extraordinary little experience shared with an exceptionally talented human jukebox equipped with a notebook full of song names to choose from, a couple of pedals and a very nice Maton acoustic guitar.

Go see a show! Support the Aussie music scene and sing along.

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