This was my tenth time seeing Colin Hay (former lead singer from Men at Work) as a solo act or with his band. I must admit that I like both shows, the acoustic and band shows the same. This wasn’t the best show I have seen, but Colin only gets better with age. Yes, he is pushing 58 and didn’t even try to hold the note at the end of Waiting for My Real Life to Begin, but it was a great show nonetheless. The set list is below. The set was heavily focused on the new album, Gathering Mercury. You should check it out.
Gathering Mercury
Family Man
Going Somewhere
Wayfaring Sons
Who Can It Be Now?
Conversation
Oh California
Prison Time
Send Somebody
Invisible
Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You
Dear Father
Far From Home
Beautiful World
Down Under
Overkill
Waiting for My Real Life to Begin
I was very nervous about this show from the start. I got the tickets in December when it was announced. He was supposed to play the Quick Center at Fairfield University, which is a big venue. I was a little surprised because I really didn’t think he would fill the place, and he didn’t. So they moved the venue, to a 275 seat room. Theatre One is owned by the FTC who runs The Klein Memorial where I saw Art Garfunkel two years back. I got an e-mail from the promoter a few days ago about the show being moved, and was nervous that the show was even taking place because the shadiness of everything thus far.
Austin, my faithful concert companion, donned his vegan vest and was waiting for me at the train station when I arrived. We decided to take the train, since the venue was right across the street from the Fairfield station. The ticket cost $5.50 USD and what a value because there was no parking at the venue. The e-mail said the show started at 7:30, so we rushed like fools across the street from the 7:26 across the street thinking the show was going to start at 7:30. Ha.
The opener came out about 7:45 and played a few songs. I can’t remember her name. Sorry. The guitar playing very good, but the songs were kind of weird though. Let’s just say that when she strapped on the banjotar (6 string banjo that looked like a guitar) I decided it was time to take a piss. I then loitered in the lobby and could hear the banjotar being played on a Wah Wah pedal. Glad I took my leave.
Colin came on a little past 8:30. The intro is new, and keeps getting funnier. “Multi, multi, multi platinum selling artist, Mr. Colin Hay!” With that, Colin hit the stage with a knapsack over his shoulder. It was random, but I digress. There are two kinds of shows, one where he talks before he sings, and one where he just starts playing. This show was one where he talks before he sings. He doesn’t even go for a guitar yet. His banter is hysterical. Some of it is reused, but most of it is new. He talked about how Ringo fell in love with his wardrobe that Cecilia (Colin’s wife) had made for his 50th birthday. He told the usual Ringo story about turning around and seeing Ringo playing the drums while on tour with the all-starrs. He told the story about how Paul McCartney came over for dinner one night and did the dishes. He added a part where Paul did a dodgy job and left shit all over the plates.
Colin talked about his father a lot, since he lost him last year. The new album is very personal and has a lot of songs about his father. One guy in the third row was filming with his camera or phone and Colin called him out. The guy put it away, but pulled it out during Overkill to which after the song was over Colin told the guy to go fuck himself and not to come see him again. Colin was mad, probably because it will go up on YouTube tomorrow and he was talking about smoking a “wee spliff”.
The song from Garden State is not my favorite, so I decided to go take another piss when I knew he was going to do it. The funny thing is, I got up, did my business and when I got back he was still talking about the song, and didn’t even play it yet. So I still had to sit through it. Beautiful World was very good as is usually the highlight for me. It had the verse about “sleeping with Marie,” which is only sung half the time. The only down part was that Cecilia, his wife, was not there to fill in on harmony. She always adds amazing harmony and she likes to have fun on stage, a little too much fun. I’d love to go see her band, the Wild Clams, but they don’t really tour around here.
He told a story about how he was sued because the flute part from Down Under was ripping off a different song, unbeknownst to the band. The publishing company that had rights to the song wanted 60% of profits, but they ended up getting the lowest amount, 5%. You sort of have to feel sorry for him, but as he points out, he’s “very very rich.” His wealth must come for the four to five Men at Work hits that still get played on the radio. I think the between thirty-five and forty-five dollars I have spent each time seeing him is well worth it. He always puts on a fantastic show, and much like a fine wine, only matures and gets better with age. His voice is still strong and he really deserves more credit at being a great acoustic player. His hand-made Australian Maton guitars sound really good. I noticed that he has some sort of magnetic guitar cord. There is no lead, but the cord magnetically connects to the plug. The only thing Austin and I came up with was that maybe his lazy eye is giving him trouble, and that is the side he has to plug in when switching guitars. He said himself last night that he only sees 8% out of that eye.
After the show, as usual, the announcer (his usual touring roadie/sound mixer/tour manager, I’m sorry I don’t know your name, but I think it might be Michael), said Colin was going to come to the ‘merch’ table to sign. So I knocked some rich bitch out of the way to be the first in line. I waited as long as I could, but we had to catch the 10:53 train. So when he wasn’t out at 10:51, Austin and I ran for it. We ran across the street with a minute to spare. Then the announcer told us of a track change. We had to run up three flights of stairs, run across the bridge, down three flights of stairs onto the other platform. Are you kidding me? My fat heart couldn’t take it, I’m still out of breath. We made it just in time. We got on the train, it was a new one that Metro North has been saving. It really wasn’t that nice, and not worth the rate increase to pay for it. Got home at 11:11pm and passed out. I got some nice pics since we weren’t that far away.
PS, there is this woman I see at all the CT Colin Hay shows; she has long grey pony tails. I see you at every show, I think next time I will say hi.
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