IT was Paul Kelly’s debut at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre and I reckon for those who got to see it, it is set to go down as one of this town’s great musical moments.
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Okay, I’m a fan and I was expecting it to be good, but Kelly with his five piece band delivered a magical performance at the tin can on November 15. He pretty much blew the audience away.
The only sour note was the concert was seated. I looked hopefully at the front of the crowd waiting for those close to the stage to break the ranks and rise from their chairs to dance. Sadly that didn’t happen. I spent much of the night fighting the urge to move.
The line-up included the Bull sisters, Vika and Linda; Kelly’s nephew Dan Kelly on guitar, Cameron Bruce on keys, Bill McDonald on bass, and Peter Luscombe on drums. Kelly promised the near capacity audience a night of music that would “go all around the block”. And that it did.
The show kicked off with two tracks, Rising Sun and Finally Something Good – both off the new and acclaimed album Life is Fine. From there he wound back to 1986 delivering Before Too Long at the beginning of what was a very well crafted set list that built up, pared back and then went full throttle throughout the two hour show.
With a massive catalogue of songs spanning more than 30 years, Kelly managed to seamlessly weave the old with new. Traversing from the hits – Dumb Things, To Her Door and Love Never Runs on Time – to the more obscure Sonnet 18 from the 2016 recording Seven Sonnets and a Song.
The Bull sisters’ gutsy backing vocals on many of the songs delivered the kind of musical layering required for Newcastle’s largest seated venue to be at its best, sound wise. The sisters also took the lead on vocals with two songs. Vika’s My Man’s Got a Cold was delivered with guts, humour and sass, while Linda performed Don’t Explain.
Kelly provided insights into some of the tracks on Life is Fine throughout the show. The tune Leah: The Sequel, which Kelly co-wrote with Bill Miller, picks up on the story in Roy Orbison’s song Leah.
“It’s sort of a happy ending,” Kelly told the audience.
“We had to talk to Orbison’s people and after some robust discussion I’m pleased to announce we have a co-write with Roy Orbison.”
Kelly was in fine spirits, and so were the audience. One member thoughtfully provided him with updates on the match between the Socceroos and Honduras by calling out the score between songs.
A humorous moment occurred when Kelly launched into Life is Fine, then faltered. “I forgot the words,” he said. “I’m a bit nervous tonight. That might be because my sister is in the audience.” The audience cared not a bit and he quickly hit his straps to deliver the song, with lyrics by American poet Langston Hughes.
The real crowd pleasers were From Little Things Big Things Grow and To Her Door, and I momentarily hoped it possible people may have risen from their seats to dance, but alas they did not.
The finale was a tribute to the late Tom Petty. Kelly was joined on stage by support act Steve Earle as they sang the Travelling Willburys’ hit Handle With Care.
The crowd was definitely not leaving without an encore. The band returned to the stage and delivered three more tunes before calling it a night.
Steve Earle was awesome too. He played a solo set that included three tracks off his new album So You Wanna Be An Outlaw, but the night belonged to Kelly.
The Life is Fine tour continues throughout Australia, with the November 19 concert at the Opera House forecourt to be televised live on ABC from 8.30pm.
