Last night's concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre marked the end of Leonard's 2013 Australian tour ... and the end of the road for several folks who have been busily hopping onto and off of trains, buses and sundry other forms of transport to trek around this enormous country to follow the band's progress. For my own part it's been a short "journey" (only two concerts) but for several other forum members it has been a much larger commitment. Thankfully all of the Aussie forum travellers -- at least all that I know -- were able to make it to the show here in Adelaide, making that concert both a celebratory send-off for the UHTC and a celebration of many people's travels. In both cases it seems that the long and dusty trails have proven wearying -- Leonard commented as much on behalf of the band, and the weary sleep-deprived faces worn by some of the forum-folk by the end of last night spoke of similar.
So ... how was the Adelaide concert? In most respects I found the experience of the Adelaide concert to be very much on a par with my only other 2013 concert (the Sydney Opera House). Because I already wrote a lengthy (maybe TOO lengthy?) review of that earlier show, I won't repeat those same observations. All-in-all though, it was yet another excellent performance: Leonard and the band were all in fine form. The Adelaide audience was quiet receptive -- a little more reticent than the Opera House audience at the start, but much more vocal by the time that the encores came around.
The performance itself seemed quite similar to the show from last week -- the set list was identical and, although there were the usual variations in solos and the like, the musical element didn't really differ much at all. Given that this band has been on the road touring for so long, it's clear that they are in many ways a "well-oiled machine" which has, over time, evolved a remarkably polished and professional performance. That is most definitely a good thing ... and us Australians should feel grateful to have received such a reliable and well-honed set of songs. But, human nature being the greedy thing that it is, I can't help but wish that perhaps that we had caught the band at a point on the tour where there was a little more variation in the set-list and some more experimentation with the songs and arrangements. We fans can't truly ever be satisfied, can we?
The one big difference between the Opera House show and the one at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre was the size and sound of the venue. The Opera House -- by the standards of modern "enormo-drome" venues is a small, intimate environment with excellent acoustics and beautifully tiered stall seating. The Entertainment Centre is ... well it's just another one of those concrete boxes which doubles as a concert and sporting venue. I have always found that sound quality in those kinds of venues varies wildly depending on where you are sitting, with reflected sounds sometimes making for a muddier-than-desirable listening experience. Last night's show bore out that observation ... and only went to reinforce my appreciation for venues like the Opera House which have been architected for concert sound. That isn't to say that the Entertainment Centre was bad; the UHTC engineers did a pretty good job at still delivering a clear and listenable sound, but it was no Opera House.
Before the concert, AlanM had arranged for group of forum folks to meet up for a drink at the venue. Most of us had also gathered together for a (traditionally Aussie) barbeque at Alan's house on Tuesday night ... so most people already knew one another. There were a couple of extra folks who had flown in from Melbourne just for the concert and a delightful couple from France who had been driving around Australia taking in concerts as they went (what a holiday!). Six or seven folks all had adjacent front-row seat and as a way of giving a signature "wave" Alan had brought along a collection of covers from his Vinyl LPs which the front-row crew could wave around at Leonard and the band. This actually worked out as a very visible "stunt" ... since not only did those on stage get a good view of Alan and crew frantically waving LP covers but so too did the entire audience, thanks to the video cameramen picking them out when filming the audience reaction at the end of each and every set. Although not part of Alan's stunt, there was also another person in the front row frantically waving a placard at Leonard -- Helena, Leonard's "number 1 fan". I had completely forgotten, but I had seen Helena (another Adelaide local) on both the 2009 and 2010 tours, never far from her signature laminated sign -- a red heart, which he proudly waved above her head at the end of about half of Leonard's songs. It was great to see her at work again!
In terms of other notable happenings, I didn't see too much ... just a handful of things:
- It wasn't a very good night for the monitor mixer ... both Leonard and the Webbs seemed to be disturbed at different points that they weren't getting enough in their monitors. Leonard had a delightfully "Leonard" way of signalling to the engineer offstage -- the first time it happened (Dance Me To The End Of Love) he gave a very subtle upward pushing motion with both hands, almost like raising his hands to the heavens in supplication. It seemed to take quite some time to get things fixed, however, and Leonard ended up giving similar little gestures all the way through to Tower of Song.
- Just before the solo intro to Who By Fire, a man from a few rows behind me yelled out to Leonard "Hey Leonard! What's the sound of one hand clapping?" A bit random, perhaps, but if anybody is going to know . . . Since Leonard didn't hear the question, I guess we're still left wondering.
- During Leonard's spoken thanks to the audience after the first song he acknowledged the experienced sound crew that he had assembled saying that they wanted to make sure we heard "every depressing nuance" of his songs. He told the people way up in the high seats that if they couldn't hear clearly to call out his name (and he asked them to give it a trial run).
- At the very end of Tower of Song (which featured the now-customary remarks about the audience's compassion to the elderly) Leonard left the girls doing quite a number of extra "doo dum dums" in the fashion of earlier tours. He impeached them to continue in his tongue-in-cheek way: "just a few more doo doo dum dums ... because when you stop I'll be plunged back into a confrontation with the audience ... with that all that abundant opportunity for humiliation." Suffice it to say that no humiliation followed.
- For the very final song of the concert (Save The Last Dance For Me), Leonard invited the entire crew up on stage, which I believe has happened at the end of other tours but I don't think I've seen before. It was a lovely gesture and certainly one very much appreciated by the crowd, which remained standing and clapping along with the song throughout its entireity. He concluded "Well friends, it's sad to leave you" since clearly the many thousands in the radiant audience could have stayed there all night.
Good luck to Leonard and the UHTC as they head off to New Zealand and the final four shows of the world tour!
Dean (from Adelaide)