PK & Renee Geyer - Darwin

By Andrew Tupper - A.Tupper@bom.gov.au

Hi all,

I just thought I'd post a quick review of Friday night's concert in Darwin for the benefit of any people who were within 1000 miles of a venue on this tour and hesitating about going.

To summarise:

GO!

And now the longer version... Firstly, for any list members not familiar with Renee Geyer, check out

http://www.amws.com.au/g/geyer-renee/geyer-renee-i.html

for info, or put on Sting's 'We'll be together' and listen to the soulful voice doing the improvising at the end.

The concert happened in the Darwin Entertainment Centre, which is a 1000 seater sit-down concert hall with fabulous accoustics. It's a wonderful place to perform as it's still intimate enough to see the audience, and it's a wonderful place to see a performer as people tend to sit and listen rather than conduct a loud conversation. The gig was a sell-out.

Paul's band opened the set with an instumental designed to warm us up and show just how good they are; they are VERY good and I especially like Shane O'Mara's guitarwork. Renee then came on with a few numbers; I can't remember everything that was played, but she did do 'Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall', and 'Sweet Guy', with Paul quietly coming on stage and strumming his guitar during the latter. Renee has put on a lot of weight since the 70's and she's showing her age but her voice is, if anything, better; she must be living healthier!

Paul then came on and started his set with 'Dumb things' (Hello strangers, welcome to my show...), one of only four 'Messengers' era songs he played during the night (the others were 'Winter coat' and 'To her door', and a duet of 'Careless'). After he did a few songs they ended the first half with a stunning duet of 'Difficult Woman', with Paul singing the first verse and Renee singing most of the rest. Renee's voice is so powerful that I think that it was sometimes difficult for the two of them to sing at the same time, but they managed it well.

The second half continued in the same vein, with the performers swapping around but Paul doing most of it. Renee sang a couple of new numbers written or co-written by Paul: 'Killer Lover', and (something like) 'Wild Sweet Ways'. Both were very good. Renee sang a killer version of her old arrangement of 'It's a man's man's world'; this was almost the highlight of the night. They only did a couple of other songs that weren't written by Paul: 'Dark end of the street' and 'I'm your puppet', both as rather cute duets. Paul sang most of the songs from 'Deeper Water', and they came up very well.

Overall this was a wonderful concert and everybody seemed to come out raving, even though PK has played in Darwin many many times. I really hope that they record and release some of this tour; although we have a taste of it on Renee's 'Difficult Woman' album, her voice is jsut fantastic live and perfectly suited to Paul's songs. Since this was only the second of the shows on the tour, they can only improve by the time they hit the big cities!

PK & Renee Geyer - Townsville

GO! Do NOT miss this show. GO!

I agree with the rest of what Andrew said 100% It is mostly songs from Deeper Water and Wanted Man to some degree. Andrew didn't mention "Behind the Bowler's Arm" which was the only song I think he did solo. It brought tears to my eyes and brought me back to where I was sitting at the MCG back in the Boxing Day test of 1993. You guessed it.... 10 (ok maybe 13 or 14) rows back behind the bowlers arm in the Southern Stand watching Shane Warne from one end and Craig McDermott from the other. A bowling spell of sheer wizadry! and of course, nothing much happened at all in the afternoon session. :-)

The song rang so true for me right down to the sunburnt knees!

We got a good crowd in Townsville too. About 800-900 I guessed. It is a show that is suited more for the sit down theatre type venues and I have to reiterate what Andrew said about Shane O'Mara's guitar work. Fantastic. Stephen Hadley's bass was really slick too. The band was the Continental and Espy line-up and they were "kickin" .

> Paul's band opened the set with an instumental designed to warm us up 
> and show just how good they are; they are VERY good and I especially 
> like Shane O'Mara's guitarwork. Renee then came on with a few numbers; I 
> can't remember everything that was played, but she did do 'Summer, 
> Winter, Spring and Fall', and 'Sweet Guy', with Paul quietly coming on 
> stage and strumming his guitar during the latter.  Renee has put on a lot 
> of weight since the 70's and she's showing her age but her voice is, if 
> anything, better; she must be living healthier!

> The second half continued in the same vein, with the performers swapping
> around but Paul doing most of it.  Renee sang a couple of new numbers
> written or co-written by Paul: 'Killer Lover', and (something like) 'Wild
> Sweet Ways'.  Both were very good.  Renee sang a killer version of her old
> arrangement of 'It's a man's man's world'; this was almost the highlight
> of the night.  They only did a couple of other songs that weren't written
> by Paul: 'Dark end of the street' and 'I'm your puppet', both as rather
> cute duets.  Paul sang most of the songs from 'Deeper Water', and they 
> came up very well. 

From memory and in no particular order he played:

Dumb Things
Wintercoat
I'll Forgive but I Won't Forget
Deeper Water
Behind the Bowler's Arm
Love Never Runs On Time
You're Still picking the Same Sore
Anastasia
We've Started A Fire (Oh yeah another scorcher!!!!)
California
Everybody Wants to Touch Me
Give In To My Love
Blush
Gathering Storm
God's Hotel
Careless
Difficult Woman
To Her Door
Song from the 16th Floor
(the new ones mentioned above by Andrew)
Dark Side of the Street
....and others that will come to me as soon as I submit this email :-)

The new songs were great but the highlights for me were "California" and especially "Gathering Storm" in an encore. With the lighting and all, the mood of the songs really hit home for me. It has been a long time since PK hit Townsville (as I'm sure I've reminded you all many times :-) ). The general vibe of the punters was that the show was excellent and people were raving about it. I think a lot of people would have liked to hear a lot more of the Messengers stuff but no one really went away dissapointed. I'm sure they're all hoping that it won't be another 5 years before we see him again.

Finally, it was a tremendous pleasure to be able to meet him after the show for a bit of a chat. He's relaxed and still really enjoys being out there especially sharing the stage with Renee Geyer. He really likes the way the "stage" version of his show works. It is more of a fixed set list type of gig with Renee coming on and off and they really use the lights and the background screen to fantastic effect for the mood. PK cuts a pretty cool silouette against a deep blue background! :)

I think he might have been a little dissapointed that North Qld couldn't offer him any good surf. Well that is the price we up here have to pay for having the Barrier Reef on our doorstep. So watch out for him at a beach near you.

To summarize: Do NOT miss this show. In fact, I might get in the car now and drive down to Mackay to catch him there tonight. :-)