Paul Kelly is a national treasure. He's a great singer and songwriter whose songs have a tendency to get under your skin and stay there.
He also has an unmistakable voice which I think is a must to be successful in any kind of music.
At the moment Paul, along with nephew Dan Kelly, is touring the country presenting his A to Z Tour. Basically, over four nights, Paul plays 100 of his songs in alphabetical order.
We got tickets for night 2 which took us from F through to L.
The show was in two parts, and they were quite different. In the first half the performances were polished and the songs sung with conviction and great care. The explanations behind some of the lyrical content provided a fascinating insight as well. And Dan Kelly's guitar and ukulele work was sublime.
Somehow it all went a little bit pear shaped after the intermission. A missed lyric here and there, guitar change mistakes and even Dan not plugging in a guitar at one stage. Maybe one or two of these incidents would be amusing (and they were) but it got old really quickly. However, through all of that, Paul's honest delivery of the songs didn't waver.
After finishing with "Leaps & Bounds" the crowd demanded two encores. Sheesh, I wish I'd gone home before them. I was always of the opinion that the idea was to finish a show on a high note, not meandering about in waves of delay and feedback. A fair few people sitting around me were quite nonplussed. For me, I haven't seen such a poor encore since going to a Lemonheads gig at the ANU in 1993.
I've pasted in the setlist below for anyone interested. I'm sure that the whole four night package would be excellent.
I've also linked a couple of the best songs from last night to clips in case you want a listen:
(The) Foggy Fields Of France
Foggy Highway
Forty-Eight Angels
From Little Things Big Things Grow
From St Kilda To Kings Cross
Gathering Storm
God Told Me To
(The) Gift That Keeps On Giving
Glory Be To God
Going About My Father's Business
I Can't Believe We Were Married
I Close My Eyes And Think Of You
I Don't Know Anything Anymore
I Keep On Coming Back For More
I'd Rather Go Blind
I Wasted Time
I Won't Be Your Dog
Jandamarra/Pigeon
Jump To Love
Just About To Break
King Of Fools
Lately
Leaps And Bounds
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