Friday, May 11, 2012

Colin Hay Ridgefield Playhouse Sunday, April 29, 2012 – Solo Acoustic


This most recent concert from Colin Hay was one of melancholy and a time for reflection.  This was my 11th Colin Hay show.  Austin has lost count on his total.  I got our usual front row seats.  Colin’s usual acerbic wit was in full force.  He spoke very personally about the recent loss of his good friend Greg Ham from Men at Work, who was recently found dead at his home in Australia.  Colin started the night with Wayfaring Sons, a touching but poignant song about his home country of Australia.  Then slowing things down a touch, he talked and did his usual opening remarks including his banter with the audience which went on for quite a bit. 

Colin did a lot of old songs early on, and he was strumming most of them, almost trying to get them done fast and out of the way.  His voice cracked on a slightly different arrangement of Who Can It Be Now? 

Fan favorite Beautiful World was played next, including the line about ‘sleeping with Marie.’  As usual, he paid tribute to his father who passed away a few years ago.  His father’s death deeply touched him; in fact there are a few songs about it on his new album. 

He told the story about McCartney doing dishes at his house and how Paul and Heather used to fight over his CD Going Somewhere and then played the title track.  This is a song that always fares better live. 

Colin then opted to play another Men at Work classic, Overkill.  He had his usual guitar and looping effects while he played the solo.  The solo was simplified for the acoustic guitar.  After the solo he had split the guitar signal so there was both a distorted and clean signal playing.  It gave it a nice thick chunky sound that made it sound fuller and not sound just like one guitar. 

He switched things up and played Waiting for My Real Life to Begin.  He usually closes with this song.  He said he gets letters about people choosing this song as their wedding song.  Someone yelled out that she did, and he made fun of her, saying “I’ll check back in a few years and see how well that fuckin’ good that song did for ya.”  He didn’t attempt the high notes or holding the long note at the end.  He was almost going through the motions and he clearly played about five less songs than he usually does at his acoustic shows. 

He switched to his little 12 string guitar which is almost the size of a mandolin to sing Maggie.  This got a few claps during the intro.  After taking his little guitar off, he switched to his orchestra model shaped guitar without the cutaway and began to sing Prison Time, a great newer song.  He did another new song called Send Somebody where he really let loose on the vocals and did an admirable job. 

He closed the show with I Just Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Over You and spoke about the soundtrack from Garden State going platinum and him getting checks in the mail.  He made a crack about his albums going Mahogany. 

It was weird that there was no Down Under.  Two explanations are that since he was sued over the flute part, maybe he doesn’t want to do it anymore, or that fact that Greg had just died and it was a way to memorialize him.  He came out to a stripped down version of Down Under without vocals and the closing music was the same song, but with a slightly different arrangement. 

He did his usual meet and greet, but Austin and I decided to hit the road since we have so many autographs and photos and made our way down the windy dark back roads of Ridgefield to the Parkway to home.   

Wayfaring Sons
Who Can It Be Now?
I Don’t Know Why (acapella)
Beautiful World
Gathering Mercury
Family Man
Going Somewhere
Overkill
Waiting For My Real Life to Begin
Dear Father
Maggie
Prison Time
Send Somebody
I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get over You

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