Hughesy Goes Bananas
Thebarton Theatre
29 February 2008 - 7:30pm

Well for around $40 I got the opportunity to see one of the more well known acts of the Fringe Festival, comedian Dave Hughes. When buying these tickets I wasn't quite sure what to expect, I mean I have seen his work on television on 'The Glass House' and 'Before the Game', but I really had no idea how his stand up comedy would go in front of a usually harsh Adelaide crowd.

A lot of Dave Hughes material consisted about jokes about his marriage and things his wife has said and done - it was all very funny at her expense, hopefully she sees it all light heartedly.

He also joked about other celebrities and even bought up the media feud between himself and 'Kyle Sanderlands', he once again proclaimed that Kyle was a massive dick head and that the only thing he was sorry for was letting everyone else know that!

He outlined his TV Week Logie award for best comedy DVD, where he mentioned that he got up to make a speech and then realised that his award was presented during the advert break and that he didn't even get to do his speech on live TV. He said that after his speech he heard 'James Matherson' (presenter on Australian Idol) announce that he had won after the advert break was over. He amusingly went on to call him a "Google eyed, bug head freak". (hope that my quoting him does not create another media argument!)

Dave Hughes was amusing and often had to pause to stop him self from laughing, which kept the audience laughing with him. I did find that a few times he may have crossed the comedy line a few times, with references made to hot topics such as Heath Ledger, Christianity and the Muslim religions. When he started to make light of the death of Health Ledger, I wanted to somehow stop him and put the words back in his mouth because I think he may have lost a few of the audience members there.

Obviously when a comedy act comes to another state to perform, they research the state and areas to ensure that their material fits. In this instance, Hughesy made a lot of reference to what he perceived as the worse areas in Adelaide and made a lot of 'Elizabeth' and 'Salisbury' jokes. I kind of find all that a bit old and tiresome - I am not defending the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, but I just find those kind of jokes a little boring.

In summary, besides those few jokes that didn't work for me, Dave Hughes was entertaining and funny and performed to what seemed a sell out crowd that all seemed to enjoy the evening.

Just to note also, warming up the crowd before Dave Hughes came on was 'Adam Rozenbachs', he is a writer for the ABC show 'Spicks and Specks'. I found him very funny and entertaining. His material consisted of jokes regarding the Olympics and general funny day to day activities.
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I did a search of the fringe guide to see if he had his own Fringe show and could not find one listed. He was very funny and I personally would definately go to see him perform.

From my point of view Adam could have easily stolen the limelight as the main act if he was given more time to perform.

The Adelaide Fringe
February to March 2008
All over Adelaide!!!!

Well just to be brief, I wish I had so much more money because there are so many Adelaide Fringe Shows that I want to see, but just don't have the cash (or babysitters!) to get there! Before I start on show reviews, I just wanted to point out how amazing it is to live in Adelaide this time of year. The atmosphere on every street corner in the city is electric.

As I make my way to all the events and free shows I will add some photos just to show how alive Adelaide can be. We seem to get a bit of a bad rap from the the eastern states, but the month of March shows the rest of Australia and the World just how fun us Adelaidians can be!

For you tourists that have decided to come to our lovely state - A very big welcome to you!

Powderfinger
Clipsal 500 After party - Adelaide

22 February 2008

Well alleluia Adelaide is Alive and buzzing with festivals and car racing! It is so good to be a part of the crazy time at this time of the year.

OK I admit I am not a car racing fan and I hold no allegiance to either Ford or Holden, but I do love the fact that a V8 car race can bring 4 nights of constant concerts to my lovely state! While there were shows on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Friday night was the one that grabbed my attention. Powderfinger, Kiss Chasey and Expatriate were the headline acts. I unfortunately missed Powderfinger when they did the 'Across the Great Divide' concerts with Silverchair so thought that the Clipsal 500 concert was the perfect way to rectify that!

The show started just after 7pm with an Adelaide Band named 'Special Patrol' I have not heard of them before, but they have apparently been doing the band scene around Adelaide for a few years. What a great opportunity for them to be a support band and to perform and get noticed by the people of Adelaide.

Next Expatriate came on, I have seen these guys around usually as a back up but admittedly not taken too much interest. They seemed to have a genuine fan base in the crowd and performed impressively. I did not know too many of their songs but nether less was entertained by their performance.

Kiss Chasey were next up, and were great performers. They kept the growing crowds attention and sang their songs with passion and and enthusiasm that you would expect at a live out door show. Kiss Chasey I guess had the advantage of coming on just before Powderfinger - most of the audience had arrived from their spots on the track, the alcohol had kicked in and people were there for a party atmosphere and everyone really wanted to see Powderfinger.

When Powderfinger finally walked on stage you could feel the electricity in the air. These guys have a number of hit songs and they treated the audience to all of them. They encouraged the audience to participate in singing 'My Happiness' and the noise from the audience was amazing. I was near the front of the stage but wonder how far away the crowd could be heard.

The show was threatened by the rain that decided it could not hold out any longer, and seriously I did not see a single person move - a few umbrellas went up (which is a crazy thing to do with people jammed in so tight at a concert) but Bernard Fanning and his boys just kept on singing and performing as if they were playing on a summers day.

They sang all of their hits such as 'Lost and running', 'These Days', 'Love Your Way' and the climax was the encore with '(Baby Ive got you) On My Mind'. I was truly entertained by Powderfinger as was the thousands of others that got to witness a truly fantastic all Australian act. I walked away from the concert with a husky voice from too much singing and screaming but continued on till the wee hours with the fringe opening party which was also being held in the cities east end!

The Other Woman
Adelaide Town Hall
Sunday 3 February 2008 - 7:30pm


Well Jazz Jazz Jazz give me lots of lovely Jazz!

Set in the back drop of the beautiful pipe organ of Adelaide Town Hall, we were presented with Deni Hines, James Morrison and their wonderfully talented big brass band.

When I heard that Deni Hines was performing Jazz, I kind of thought ok, she might also pipe out some of her pop as well, you remember hits like '(That word) L.O.V.E', I really couldnt picture her being able to pull off some Jazz songs. Not that I am much of a Jazz critic, because this was probably my first official Jazz gig.

Combined Deni and James Morrison performed songs such as 'Only Have Eyes For You', 'The Very Thought Of You', 'Its Just Too Damn Hot' and 'Someone to Watch Over Me'. All performed lovely and with such enthusiastic facial expressions from Deni.

One song that Deni and James performed that touched me was called 'Strange Fruit' by Billie Holliday. James introduced the song by proclaiming that it was a poem originally written by a Jewish teacher, who was so emotinally affected by a photo of linching of black man, penned the words to this haunting but captuvating song. Billie Holliday independantly recorded the song because no record company would allow it on their label, mostly due to the controversial nature of the lyrics. I have never heard the original version of this song, but was definatly moved by the words and emotion that Deni put into it.

This was my first performance seeing James Morrison live - I have seen him plenty of times on television, but have never really witnessed his personality. On stage he seemed like a very fun and down to earth person, he did tell a few shocker jokes but in all was very entertaining. He is obviously well known for his brilliant trumpet playing, but he proved that he is so much more than a man behind a brass instrument! He wrote the song for the show "Tired of Being the Other Woman" which was an entertaining piece, but he also gave the audience an insight into some of the technoligical advances in music. He performed on a digital trumpet, which was played like a trumpet but could make the sound of any other instrument, and he showed a keyboard that was voice activated (sorry I dont remember the technical names for these gadgets!)

James told the audience that he was an ambassador for a foundation named 'Hear the World' which was an organisation set up to raise awareness of hearing. I guess too often our senses are ignored and it is great when a celebrity gets behind these initiatives. I did what James suggested to the audience and I 'Googled' to find out more information and found the following website: http://www.hear-the-world.com/ it outlines that artists like Bryan Adams, Joss Stone, Moby and many others are also Ambassadors.
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Taken from the website is this quote:
"Hear the World is an initiative by Phonak that aims to raise awareness of the topic of hearing and hearing loss and to promote good hearing all over the world. The goal of the Hear the World Initiative is to educate the general public about the importance of hearing, the social and emotional impacts and the benefits of available solutions for those with hearing loss."
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Anyway to summarise the performance of "The Other Woman" it was very entertaining, and was great to see the performers all relaxed and on stage just enjoying them selves in doing what they do best. It was a lovely entertaining way to spend a Sunday evening.

Miss Saigon

Adelaide Festival Theatre

5 January 2008

Well firstly I would like to point out that it is fantastic that one of the big shows has come to Adelaide. I know it is a big deal for production to decided to make the trip south, particularly when the Adelaide audience is always going to be an unpredictable audience number.

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I believe that the show is still running, and I just hope that it is filling a decent number of seats for each show so that more 'big budget' shows make the decision to come to South Australia.

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For this show, I bought my tickets early in the hope of securing good seats, I normally sit in the stalls at the Festival Theatre for shows, but this time I thought I would take a risk and sit in the front row of the grand circle seats, thinking that a higher position would make the effects better. This risk did not pay off, I found looking down onto the stage a little distracting, I wanted to see the expressions on the faces of the actors but really could not make it out - granted my eyesight is not perfect, but I thought B reserve tickets might be a little better. Next time I will stick to the A reserve because you certainly do get what you pay for.

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As for Miss Saigon I walked into the show not having any expectations because I did not know what the story was about. I knew it was a war love story, but did not know it was about a soldier that falls in love with a Vietnam prostitute during the war. It was a lovely story, and the actors did a wonderful job at making the audience feel the pain and emotion.

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Laurie Cadevida who played the lead female role of Kim had a wonderful voice and sang with true emotion that towards the end made you want to cry (in fact I did have some tears!).

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Also worth a mention was Leo Tavarro Valdez - playing The Engineer, he was so entertaining - his character was funny, energetic, and enabled the audience to laugh through sections of what was a rather serious and sad story line.

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David Harris who played the lead male of Chris was equally very good - and excuse me for making a comment about his looks, but how buff and handsome did he look in that army uniform!

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In this production there was no skimping on set design, it was amazing how it jumped from the war scenes to bar dancing scenes in no time at all. My highlight - The helicopter, wow it really looked like the soldiers were being picked up and taken away, and with the surround sound, you could almost feel the wind of the propellers as it appeared to fly over the top of the audience.
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The stage is one thing I think most people would have walked away and commented on almost immediately.

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Miss Saigon was a highlight to my new year, and if I had the dollars I would go again in an instant, sit closer and see if from a new perspective. As mentioned this show is playing until 10 February 2008 and I would urge all South Australians to embrace this wonderful performance.

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It is not too late to buy tickets and lots of good seats are still available (go for the Stalls or the Dress Circle - avoid the Grand Circle seats) go to http://www.bass.net.au/events/database/MISSSAIGON2007/ for more information.

Fireworks New Years Eve
9pm - Elder Park - South Australia

I thought it was worth it to do a brief mention of the fireworks put on by the Adelaide City Council for New Years Eve 2007.

As a parent who could not find a baby sitter for New Years it was great to be able to attend a family event with fireworks and children's entertainment on at 9pm instead of having to wait until midnight.

It was also great to see that despite the 40 degrees Celsius that it seemed that quite a few thousand people attended.

The first performance was by Peter Combe and the News Paper mama band, they were fairly good and did manage to keep the kids at bay - I guess my problem was that my children had no idea who Peter Combe was or what he sung, I grew up with 'Newspaper Mama' and thought that the idea of brushing your teeth with bubble gum was fantastic, but the kids under 12 really could not get into because they didn't know the words - maybe more support needs to be given to these Aussie guys who I think (don't quote me if I am wrong) have been around since before the Wiggles and other children's bands.

At 9pm about 15 minutes of fireworks erupted from pinky flat, these were really great and considering we don't seem to be getting a 'Sky Show' this year were about as entertaining as the kids are going to get for firework shows.

I do have one dig - did the rather pathetic pretend 'Kath and Kym' really have to talk the whole way through the fireworks. Yes "look at me Kym" is pretty much now apart of the Aussie lingo these days, but please next year just shut up and let everyone enjoy the fireworks.

I did not hang around for the midnight fireworks or the remaining performances which I believe was the party bands 'Chill' and 'Jam'. I did read in the paper that the fireworks were 10 minutes late - I guess I find that amusing, but very Adelaidian!!!!!

Lets hope that the Adelaide City Council continues these free family events for all of South Australia to enjoy!

Pop goes the Wiggles
Adelaide Entertainment Centre

9 December 2007

Well I have to say that there is nothing more rewarding to see the delight of a child when their idols appear from behind stage, and appear in a whirl of lights and boppy music - and even more exciting when those idols are the phenomenon that is the Wiggles!

Pop Goes the Wiggles, was bright and happy performance performed by Murray, Jeff, Anthony, Sam and their entourage of regular supporting members such as Captain Feather Sword, Dorothy, Wags and Henry.

If you have seen the DVD 'Wiggles Live' this performance was very similar with not too much of the Wiggles material changing - for an adult that may cause a problem, but for our toddlers, they don't want new material, they want to hear the songs that are echoed out from their televisions across the world.

The Wiggles were energetic and enthusiastic about every part of the show, they interacted with the children and moved through the audience, which is something rarely done by other performers.

I believe the Wiggles performed three shows over the course of the day, so I am grateful to them for keeping the enthusiasm to keep going after a long day. I hope that these guys continue to come back every year and perform a wonderful children's Christmas show.

Babies Proms - Adelaide Youth Sinfonia

Grainger Studio - Hindley Street

Sunday 28 October 2007

On Sunday I took my son to the city to see the Adelaide Youth Sinfonia perform in a children's concert called "Babies Proms!". It was a concert aimed at 0-5 year olds and performed at the Grainger Studio on Hindley Street.

The orchestra performed music such as 'Row Row Your Boat', 'Mission Impossible', 'Wild', 'March' from Carmen, 'Slavonic Dance No.8', 'The Music for the Royal Fireworks 4&5' and 'Night on Bald Mountain'.

I am not sure of the ages of the youth orchestra, they seemed to range any where from 10 to 18, and these guys really did a wonderful job. It was great to see that they were able to keep their composure and perform with so many toddlers running around to distract them!

The conductor 'Joanne Drimatis' allowed the children time to interact with the band and actually allowed the children and parents to wander around the orchestra while they were performing - the only rule was to look but don't touch!

The performance was hosted by 'Bronwen James', she encouraged all the children to stomp, crawl, and dance to the music, and they all followed her around copying the actions.

This performance lasted really only for about 40 minutes which was a little disappointing, because just as the kids were really getting into it, it seemed to end - I guess considering the age group it was aimed at, the kids generally loose concentration not long after. (I think for selfish reasons I would have liked an extra 15 minutes added!)

For about $10 a ticket this was a lovely experience for the whole family, it was definitely something different to do, and no child at the performance looked disappointed.

The winner for my child was that each child walked away with a helium balloon which was a big bonus as well after the show!

It's A Kind of Magic - Festival Theatre

21 October 2007 - 6:00pm

What do you get when you get 4 guys dressed to look and play instruments like one of the world’s best rock bands?

You get a damn good tribute show that is what you get!

Last night, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see “It’s a kind of Magic” which is a tribute to the band that was QUEEN. Ever since seeing the fantastic show “We Will Rock You” at Star City in Sydney, I have been a major Queen fan. I have all the albums (including ‘We Will Rock You’ sound track), and relish in the geniuses that was Freddy Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.

The first thing that I am going to say is that it is weird to see a ‘Rock’ performance at the Festival Theatre, because well firstly from my experiences people usually prefer to sit and bop in this theatre, they don’t get off their butts, and last night was no exception. Craig Pesco who did a wonderful performance as Freddy Mercury did his best to continually try to get the audience to their feet, but it seemed everyone that sat central to the stage did not want to move, I don’t know why, even the people in the disabled seats behind me made more of an effort - and they had an excuse. Towards the end of the show most of the patrons got up and danced and clapped, but there was still a heap of people not budging from their seats. Is this an Adelaide thing??? Are we that conservative here, because I honestly have no idea how you can go to a Queen show and not dance!

Unfortunately I was not old enough and probably on the wrong continent to ever have got the opportunity see QUEEN live, but from the footage and film clips that I have seen, I really feel that this tribute performance was almost near enough to the real thing. They performed all of the classics such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’, ‘We Are the Champions’, and my personal favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Craig Pesco even did Freddy to a tee and put on the maid out fit to do a rendition of ‘I Want To Break Free’, he had the leather pants, the feather duster to thrust into and the fake boobs to flash at the audience – (may I say a very perky set as well!!!)

The cast consisted of Craig Pesco who was obviously the star as Freddy Mercury, (and was brilliant might I add), but could not have pulled off the performance without the support from the other members who where:
‘Travis Hair’ as Brian May – who looked the part and played the guitar with precision
‘Brett Milliken’ as Roger Taylor – who apart from a really bad blonde wig, did an amazing solo drum performance, and almost got a full standing ovation from the audience on his own!
‘Mitch Cairns’ as John Deacon – who played Bass in a way that John Deacon himself would have been proud.

Apart from the lack of support from the audience the only thing that I thought the show lacked was perhaps a little more footage to celebrate Queen. There was some footage of Freddy Mercury, but maybe leading in from the interval some footage of the entire band doing shows such as Live 8, interviews etc. would have been an added bonus. It is one thing to sing their songs in tribute, but I would have been nice to celebrate their lives and their achievements a little more.

Apparently next week these guys are doing an encore performance again at the Festival Theatre, and I would urge any Queen fan to get a ticket and go, you will not be disappointed. All of the seating on the plan for this performance would be great, so if the only tickets you can get is up in the bleachers don’t worry – you will still enjoy this show!

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For more information about this show check out the official website http://queen.itsakindamagic.com/ and tickets can be brought through BASS.

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Candy Man – Her Majesty’s Theatre

18 September 2007 – 6:30pm

Well tonight I had the pleasure of seeing Candy Man at her Majesty’s Theatre in Adelaide.

Candy Man is a story based on the life of Sammy Davis Jnr, it is told by Wayne Scott Kermond in the form of song and dance.

At the beginning of the show Wayne clearly points out that he is not impersonating Sammy Davis Jnr (for obvious reasons) he is simply celebrating his life, and telling the story.

As Wayne performed Sammy Davis Jnr’s songs, I was glad that he did not try to mimic Sammy;s unique voice. He performed each piece with his own interpretation and with feeling and much emotion. You could clearly see that Wayne idolised Sammy Davis Jnr and to be honest I think that Sammy would be moved and honoured at the performance given.

The first song performed was of course ‘Candy Man’ which is probably Sammy Davis Jnr’s biggest international hit. It was then followed by ‘Make-em Laugh’ where Wayne provided his own stand up humour by doing impersonations of celebrities such as ‘Humphrey Bogart’, ‘Sylvester Stallone’, ‘Jerry Lewis’ and ‘Michael Jackson’ – all were very well done and humorous.

The first half continued with songs such as ‘Rock a Bye’, ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ and ended with a ‘Sing Sing Sing’ where probably my highlight of the night was that the audience was treated to a wonderful tap dance routine performed by Wayne and his back up dancers who were ‘Veronica Beattie’, ‘Simon Lind’, ‘Tracie Morley’, ‘Troy Phillips’ and ‘Kelly Power’. This routine was wonderfully done and would give ‘Tap Dogs’ a good run for their money.

The second half was a little more serious, reflecting on some of the racial issues that Sammy Davis Jnr faced as well as the break down of his marriage. However the song and dance by the performers was brilliant and kept the audience wanting more.

Wayne Scott Kermond and his team of performers portrayed a wonderful compliment to Sammy Davis Jnr and his life achievements, and Candy Man was a wonderful performance to be enjoyed by all – young and old and for those who have no prior knowledge of Sammy Davis Jnr or his music.

A well deserved standing ovation was given by the audience to the cast and crew at the end of the performance.

Steely Dan - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
11 September 2007

Well for fathers day I bought dad some tickets to see Steely Dan at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, which put me in the good books at least for a little while! Mum didn’t want to go, so I had the pleasure of a father/daughter evening with the old boy!

Firstly I just have to have one little dig at the general population of Adelaide. The show started at 8pm, which was clearly marked on the tickets, but yet the poor staff at the Entertainment Centre was still having to show people to their seats with torches until interval at 9pm. Not only was it disruptive to the people watching the show, but also it must have been annoying to the performers.
Honestly! – If you have tickets to a show, for goodness sake rock up on time, it is only polite!

Ok, now that I have the off my chest, on to the show. Steve Cummings appeared first on stage, this was a surprise because we were expecting World Party as the only back up band. Steve kept it fairly simple performing classics such as “Who Listens to the Radio” he generally did a good job at warming up the approximately 3000 plus crowd.

At change over ‘World Party’ came on this was at about 8:40pm, the stage lights were kept dim with just a quick 5-minute instrument change. The band came on stage and declared that it was their first trip to Australia, and they received a warm welcome. I have not really heard of ‘World Party’ before, and therefore did not know their music. They did however do a cover of ‘Robbie Williams’ song ‘She’s The One’ – I am the greatest Robbie fan so this won me over instantly.

After an interval of about a half hour, Steely Dan came out for their first tour of Australia since they formed over 40 years ago. I guess the first notable major thing was the band. There were about 10 members, which consisted of brass instruments such as two saxophones, a trombone and a trumpet, these added instruments definitely gave a great jazzy rock feel to the atmosphere.

Steely Dan performed most of their hits including ‘Hey Nineteen’, ‘Green Earrings’ and ‘Asia’ which they did well, however I found that on occasions the backing vocalists sometimes drowned out the main vocals by Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. One song that did not do was 'Rikki Dont lose that number' which was kind of suprising since it was one of their bigger hits. I think the crowd was waiting for that song at the end and expected it in a oncor bit it did not happen.

In all the show was pleasant, the crowd (which seemed to be aged maybe 40 plus as a majority), remained seated, but was treated to a chance to step back to their youth and reminisce over music from albums of their past.

Bob Dylan - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
21 August 2007

Well I was given these concert tickets from a friend and can honestly say I barely know what Bob Dylan sings, I knew he did the Hurricane and a few others but that is it. So maybe it is not the best concert to start my first review but well here goes.

Hmmm well ok yes Bob Dylan definately has a unique voice but I don't get why most of his songs sounded the same. He has one of those voices where he almost talks his songs and to be honest he spoke the lyrics so fast that I could not understand what was saying. He obviously has a lot of new music because none of the songs (except one) sounded even remotely familiar to me - and he didn't sing 'the Hurricane' what is with that????

The stage set up was fairly basic, instruments on stage with a black curtain behind the band - nothing overly spectacular, Bob did no outfit changes, but to his credit he did sing for two hours straight. I think it would have been nice though if he had of interacted with his audience a little more.

The audience was quite good and seemed to enjoy the show, those few people who knew all of the songs did generally sing along, everyone else just toe tapped to the beat. There was a small congregation at the front of the stage of die hard fans standing for the best spot in front, but generally most people sat and listened. When he finished the final song, the people in the front of stage area gave a standing ovation and cheered for him to come back and do an encore but he did not make it back out.

Bob Dylan was ok, as I said it is a little hard because I do not know his music, so while I found the concert mildly entertaining, it is not one I will store in my memory bank as a favourite show. That being said, the die hards did seem to enjoy it and I guess that is all that counts!

Here is the deal, I am a generation X chic in my 30's and I love to go to see live shows. I go to heaps of concerts around Adelaide in South Australia and figure that rather than buying expensive merchandise, ill make my souvenir a blog and be a critic on each show.
I always read the write up in the Advertiser about shows and feel that the writer always just highlights the good stuff and sugar coats things to suit publication. Well I have decided that I will just tell it like it is - I dont wont to offend any major fans, I am just giving a single point of view.

I have decided that for the purpose of my blog, I am not going to limit this to concerts, Ill give my view on movies, plays, places to eat - anywhere or anything that I think warrants a mention. I am happy to receive comments either those who aggree or disagree to what I have said, but will not allow any offensive comments to be posted on the blog - I can take constructive criticism and accept that everyone has an opinion......!