Description
On Saturday 26th April, 2025, Joel Smoker and The Red Dirt Band performed songs from his 2013 album, The Human Condition, at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on Saturday, April 26 2025. They also performed songs from Joel’s previous albums Out On Highway One (1989), Outback (1995), The Flesh and the Spirit (1999), Smile (2006) and his two EPs The Road to Nullagine (2005) and Heaven (2007). The concert was filmed by ProCopy and a DVD has now been produced from it
The Human Condition album and performance examined all aspects of, literally, the human condition via a court jester persona. It’s a unique process allowing a different freedom of expression.
“The theme of the album, and of the show, is about power,” Joel explains. “I’ll break it into how we use power and how some people abuse power. It will also be about speaking to power, and my stories will be around that theme.
“There’ll be stories from my life, experiential stories, and I hope people are engaged and maybe learn something from that. I was a primary school teacher, then I went back to art school and I was a high school art teacher. So I guess that’s built into my DNA, the motivation to teach, and if people want to come and listen, that’ll be great. And if they don’t want to listen, that’s cool. I can live with that!”
‘So what are we to do about the way we are
Eliminate our faults
Make everyone a star
Or do we hold a mirror up to our lives
And see what we want to see?
The mirror never lies’
Joel Smoker – The Human Condition
“I’m basically saying in regard to the human condition, ‘so this is what we’re like, and what are we going to do about it?’” states Joel.
From Calling On The Tom Tom, an examination of mobile phone dependency and I’m So Busy’s bluesy tale of 21st Century franticness to She’s Gone’s ‘boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-what-does-boy-do-next?’ and Luddites Of the World Unite’s take on information technology, the evening will be an entertaining look at the foibles that make us human.
