Review: Mark Seymour and James Reyne
Posted by Anura Samara, 6 August 2016
A night out with two great Australian singer-songwriters.
I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to see Mark Seymour live – I like his acoustic music and think he’s got a great voice.
So when we say tickets to this combined show with James Reyne it seemed to be too good to miss.
The venue was the Metro Theatre. It’s a really great old-style venue for music. Instead of sitting politely in tiered ranks, the space is opened with wide stepped rows for standing only and each row has a railing to lean on and hold your drinks. There were two bars actually inside the theatre so the movement of people together with being the open atmosphere was far more conducive to chatting to the people around you than a standard concert.
I had a quick win. No sooner had we negotiated entrance past the security guard at the front door of the theatre then I felt someone brush past me on the stairs. I turned to see Mark Seymour himself and at least had the opportunity to shake his hand.
The format of the show was that Mark and James played a set themselves (with their supporting musicians) and then the final part was a combined set.
Of course, I was there to see Mark Seymour so I really enjoyed his set. A mix of acoustic versions of some Hunters and Collectors songs together with his newer stuff. I think it’s time I stopped reminiscing and started to really listen to his new stuff although I’ll admit that I’m not really a fan of the ballad-style. “Eighteen again” was a new song for me.
Then it was on to James Reyne who similarly did a mix of both old Australian Crawl, covers and newer stuff. It was the first time I’d heard some of the Aussie Crawl stuff in decades and it was amazing to see how easily the lyrics rolled from the tongue after so long. They were part of the soundtrack to my youth.
The combined set was really good. It included all the musicians from the individual sets, and Mark and James really seemed to combine well. I really liked their version of “Say Goodbye” – the only version I can find online seems to be either the original Hunters and Collectors version or a more recent version with Jimmy Barnes which had more energy but unfortunately Barnsey makes it sound more like a cat being strangled.
We really enjoyed this concert. The location was great and the combination of both artists and songs gave us enough to sing along with as well as some newer numbers which gives us an incentive to go and track them down.
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