Here in Australia, Easter Monday, a public holiday here, fell on Anzac Day, another public holiday. The Scientist and I had the joy of attending Songlines Anzac Day concert with Paul Kelly and Neil Finn headlining. It was held at Red Hill in an almost brand new outdoor auditorium located in the Perth hills. It’s a bit unusual to have an outdoor concert this late in the season but Perth’s unseasonably warm and dry weather has been beneficial in this instance. The day turned out to be quite pleasant and jackets weren’t required despite being at a higher altitude in the hills.

I will start off by saying the venue has some issues to iron out, mostly with parking and food. Signs leading to the venue were confusing and many concert-goers were delayed. The organisation of traffic at the end of the show was chaotic at best. We waited half an hour before attempting a departure. Outside food wasn’t permitted but the venue didn’t have enough catering to feed the masses. They apparently had nothing left to serve before long before the main acts were due on stage. After finding other venues serving some pretty decent food at a reasonable price, we risked eating food on-site this time and found it quite disappointing. Healthy options were at a minimum and prices were at a premium. My other gripe is that people were smoking in the venue. It has been banned at every other concert I’ve been to, so I was quite surprised to find several people lighting up on this occasion. I honestly thought it had been banned in public events like this, but apparently that isn’t the case.

Not knowing exactly where we were going and also hoping to get a good seat, we left home quite early and arrived over an hour before gates were due to open. We had no trouble parking on-site (unlike some later arrivals) and soon found ourselves in line with others who had arrived even earlier. We were moved up pretty quickly in anticipation of gates opening but sound check was still in progress so all we could do is stand and listen to the sound check.  Nevertheless, we were inside well before the official opening time of 6:30pm. We were surprised to find the bag checks weren’t particularly thorough. Despite bans on the outside food, the only thing that was really being searched for was alcohol.

We immediately found our way down to the front of the auditorium, which is set up like an amphitheatre. I was surprised to see, however, the area in front of the stage filled with cement instead of grass. I’m assuming this was a call they made to make maintenance easier but it looked rather unusual. We started out at the front row of seats but moved to just in front of the stage once a few others started to congregate there. The concrete was not the most comfortable place to sit but it was dry and it wasn’t cold there.

The first act started after 7pm with Ben Merito, a young New Zealand-born singer who now lives in Perth. I mostly enjoyed his music but we found it very hard to understand him because he spoke so quickly. One of his songs was dedicated to his mum and was all about drinking tea. Very cute!

Second act was Lior, an Australian singer songwriter who I’d heard was quite good. His music was fine but nothing to get too excited about. The highlight for me was his cover of a Radiohead tune that I do know. I felt like he had more life to him then than during any other song. He also had a string quartet accompanying him on some songs although they seemed to spend most of their time just sitting there. Overall, kind of underwhelming but not bad.

The crowd up near the stage had filled out by the time Lior finished and the crowd was quite ready for Australian icon, Paul Kelly. I think normally he has a full band in his shows but this time he was just accompanied by his nephew, Dan Kelly, on guitar. Although Paul Kelly has been around for many years, we’d never seen him. Ironically, we’ve now seen Dan three times and he’s quite talented in his own right. The set was a good mix of songs that most of the crowd would know. There were only a couple I’d never heard before, so I felt quite satisfied and able to sing along. I was quite surprised to see Neil Finn joining them on stage at the end of the set for a song he has often covered in his shows. The Scientist apparently had spoilers of this surprise when he heard one of the roadies make mention of Neil’s microphone while setting up. So he was able to give me a bit of warning.  I managed to get quite a few photos during the set and was happily surprised later on to find Paul Kelly photographs extremely well. At least for me, he does. :-D

During the interval before Neil Finn’s set, it suddenly became quite cramped up in front of the stage. Earlier on, the Scientist had given his space on my right to an enthusiastic fan behind him and she was forever grateful to him. Behind me and to my left a bit, a woman was pushing her way to the front. Or at least she was trying to get up to the front. She was already quite inebriated and was demanding that she be allowed to stand in the front row because she’d been waiting twenty years for this. She was quite rude and was accompanied by a partner who wasn’t much better. She was mostly trying to get in front of the Scientist and I guess squeeze in next to me. He wasn’t allowing it nor was anyone else in the vicinity. Most of us in that area were well-behaved and considerate but she wasn’t. Eventually she did settle down and accept she wasn’t getting closer than the row behind the front row. And really, it wasn’t that bad there either…

After the interval, Neil Finn returned to the stage and gave a wonderful performance on just guitar. Well, actually there were a few different guitars but no other instruments. It’s lovely to hear the full band performance with all the detail in the songs we love. But there is something quite pleasing about the simplicity of a single instrument. Neil was fairly jet-lagged, having come in from the UK a day or so beforehand. But he pulled off a crowd-pleasing performance with a mix of solo, Crowded House and Split Enz songs. At one point in the show, the enthusiastic and well-mannered fan that the Scientist had given his space to had a pretty special  experience when Neil asked for a fan to help him out on guitar and was looking for the first one over the barrier. She was over in a flash and accompanied him for one song, looking quite at ease. The Scientist and I both took some photos of her on-stage. Unfortunately I didn’t think to try the video until later. After the show, we found out she plays locally as part of a duo and she gave us her card for contact details. We were both able to share our photos with her, for which she was very grateful. Near the end of the show, Paul and Dan Kelly returned to the stage to help out singing Four Seasons in One Day. And the audience joined in too, as they did on a number of other well known songs. The sing-along was well-demonstrated here in Perth. Overall it was a very satisfying show that will live long in my memory. The show finished just after midnight, which was pretty late by local standards where venues seem to have early curfews of 10 or 11pm.

I was going to add photos but I don’t suppose I will get this finished if I need the extra time. So…

Photos are here

I also uploaded videos to YouTube here.