Posts Tagged ‘men at work’
RIP Greg Ham
I’m a huge Men at Work fan and have been since their first album. Read about it here and of my encounter with Greg in 1999.
Colin Hay Concert Review 03/01/2011
This was my second time seeing Colin Hay doing his solo acoustic show and it was great. You can read about past experiences with Colin and men At Work here.
The show was at the One World Theatre. This place is one of the best places to see a band that I have ever been to. It’s small (maybe 250 seats) and acoustically perfect. It’s in the Texas Hill Country and it’s got a gorgeous setting.
Opening the show was a guy named Chris Trapper (His Wikipedia page here). He wasn’t bad at all. Apparently he wrote a song on the Autumn Rush soundtrack. He had a few good jokes, played about 6 or 7 songs and was gone.
Colin comes on stage to a standing ovation, straps on his Maton acoustic, tunes it and goes right into Men At Work’s Down Under. After this song he starts his joking and storytelling. He hadn’t gotten to the second song yet and says, “Maybe we’ll get 4 or 5 songs in tonight.” If you’ve seen him before, you know he likes to talk, a lot. It’s part of his show and he’s really an interesting guy.
He ended up playing 9 songs, a few of which I don’t think I had heard before. Of the 9, three were men At work songs: Down Under, Who Can It Be Now?, and Overkill. I saw that he had added Blue For You to a few shows last year and I really hoped we would have heard that one last night, but no dice. Didn’t matter. He sounded great. His voice is still strong and he’s a really good guitar player as well.
During the closer, Overkill, he used a memory man pedal to record the main riff of the song during the song and actually got to play the guitar solo. He didn’t do that last time and it was pretty cool. I love that song.
After the show, he did a meet and greet. Lots of people there buying his new CD which was just released that day. Lots of folks had Men At Work stuff. One girl was wearing a vintage Cargo Tour shirt, which was pretty cool. I got through the line, just shook his hand, told him it was a great show and that I had seen him a few times before. I mentioned the solo show in 2009 and Men At Work in 1999. We snapped a quick photo and I was on my merry way. He looked pretty tired, but he was smiling.
If you get a chance to see this tour, do it.
Setlist (only songs 1,2,3 and 9 are in proper order):
- Down Under
- Wayfaring Sons
- Who Can It Be Now?
- Prison Time
- Beautiful World
- I just don’t think I’ll ever get over you
- Waiting for my real life to begin
- Maggie
- Overkill
Colin Hay – Concert Review – 101409 – Austin, TX
As noted before, I’m a huge Men At Work fan. I found out the day of this show that Colin was playing at the tiny little Cactus Cafe on the campus of UT. This place is typically a first come, first served so I got there early. Being the dork that I am, I brought my CD covers (previously signed by Greg Hamm) for the only 3 Men At Work albums. I used to have some of Colin’s solo CDs but his solo work never did much for me.
I was one of the first few people there and ended up meeting a guy who had also just found out about the show. Super nice guy, screenwriter. We talked for quite a while before they let us in and then sat together. The cactus only holds about 50 people and this show didn’t sell out. Criminal!!!
Colin got on stage and instantly just started telling stories, very funny stories. Intermingled with his storytelling he also played some music. Truthfully I think he may have only played 8 or 9 songs, but it didn’t matter. His stories were very engaging and absolutely hilarious, even if a bit embellished here and there.
The only Men At Work songs that he played were Down Under, Who Can It Be Now and the closer Overkill. I admit to getting a little choked up when he played that song. It’s always been one of those songs from one of those eras, ya know? I would like to have heard a few others that I think would have done well acoustically, but hey, it’s not my show.
He played practically flawlessly and his voice was still powerful and stayed crisp the whole night. He’s a solid player on guitar. I was impressed.
After the show he said he’d come out and do a quick meet and greet. Of course I stuck around (groupie!). Only about 10-15 people stuck around to say hi and I just waited at the end of the line. When he got to me, he looked at my stack of CD covers and I think it was pretty blatant that I wasn’t a fan of his almost 10 albums of solo works. He asked who had previously signed them and I told him about the show in Virginia Beach in 1999. He recalled the show as “Upstairs venue? Hot as hell?” He nailed it. He was very amiable and I just thanked him and told him how much those 3 albums meant to me as a kid and even now as an adult. He thanked me, shook my hand and looked at my shirt and said, “Black Sabbath, eh? Good on ya, mate.” We snapped a quick foto and I shook his hand one mroe time and left.
It was very special for me. I’d certainly go see him again. His comedy routine is worth the price alone. Add in his music and it’s a double bonus night!
The Metal Files 