Tag: ICC Theatre

Posted on by Lauren Katulka

Live & The Tea Party @ ICC Theatre, Sydney – 1 March 2018

Ordinarily when a band I’ve seen announces follow-up shows shortly after their last lap of the country, I give them a miss. I reason that not much will have changed and that there are always more artists tempting me to spend my money. Yet not even four months after catching them in the Hunter, I saw Live again last week. And I was every bit as psyched.

This was a very different gig from the 2017 Live show though. Rather than a soggy day out in the picturesque Hunter Valley, we filed into the modern ICC Theatre in Sydney. In the Hunter, Thirsty Merc, The Calling, and Lifehouse delivered crowd-pleasing pop-rock, but it seemed slightly out of step with Live’s angsty ‘90s rock. At this year’s tour The Tea Party provided an interesting foil, rocking every bit as hard as the headliners.

The Tea Party are such a revered act, but my exposure to them had been limited to their set at M-One (anyone else remember M-One?), when I think I might have been chatting to friends, and whatever filtered through the walls from my young sister’s bedroom. When they first hit the stage I worried they might have been a little too dark for my tastes. But as the set wore on, I started to appreciate them a little more. These guys are such exemplary musicians and Jeff Martin is one of the most charismatic frontmen you’ll ever see. He has such a cool, brooding quality that’s utterly mesmerising. I was surprised that I recognised “Sister Awake” and “Temptation.” I guess more filtered through those bedroom walls than I realised. Snippets of classic rock songs like “Paint it Black” and “With Or Without You” gave those of us less familiar with their work than those enthusiastically jumping around on the floor something to latch on to. The Tea Party might have passed me by in the ‘90s, but I feel like I got an education on what they’re all about.

While The Tea Party invigorated me with their set so out of my comfort zone, when Live took the stage I felt right at home. The set started explosively with “All Over You,” with the band’s energy matched by all of us excitedly singing along as we punched our fists in the air. And from that moment, Live had us. Just like Jeff Martin did earlier in the night, Ed Kowalczyk captivated me. He is such a powerful performer, whether he’s leading us all in a big rock number or bearing his soul in an intimate ballad.

The set had the perfect balance of hits and album tracks us fans hold close to our heart. And well it should, because it was almost the same set we heard in the Hunter. There were some notable exceptions though. We didn’t hear “Rattlesnake,” part of the encore at Roche Estate. But the set was a little longer, with the addition of “The Distance,” “Iris,” and the fantastic “Shit Towne.”

The songs that remained were so stellar and even though I’d seen them live mere months before, they lost none of the power. I was still so moved when the band played tribute to Chris Cornell with Audioslave’s “I Am The Highway.” My very favourite Live song, “Turn My Head” still gave me chills. I was on my feet with “Lakini’s Juice.” And if you’re not overcome by songs like “I Alone,” “Selling The Drama,” and “Lightning Crashes,” you probably weren’t a teen in the ‘90s.

They might have just visited us, but Live gave us the kind of dynamic performance you might expect if they hadn’t played here in years. They seemed on such a high, so appreciative of the crowd and feeding off its energy. We all felt it, and it was glorious.

Image source: own photos

Posted on by Lauren Katulka

Alanis Morissette @ ICC Theatre, Sydney – 24 January 2018

A couple of weeks have passed now and I’ve actually caught a couple of shows since, but I’m still feeling buoyed by the buzz that comes when you see one of those once-in-a-lifetime gigs. You know the ones, where you have such a heightened sense of anticipation, yet somehow the artist matches it and gives you everything you could have dreamed of. That’s how I feel about Alanis Morissette’s show at Sydney’s ICC Theatre last month.

Alanis is one of those special musicians I thought I’d never see. I was a teenager when she broke onto the music scene and her angsty, powerful songs struck such a chord with my moody self. I soaked up every album, coming to see her as a kind of wise sister who could help support me through all of those angsty things teens go through. I remember when she toured. I was making just a little bit of money working in retail and I wasn’t allowed to make the journey from Newcastle to Sydney anyway, so I had to let it go. Then she went off and got married and had babies, and I resigned myself to this feeling that I’d missed the boat.

I see so many concerts that most times I don’t get the butterflies. But they were certainly fluttering as I made my way to Sydney for this gig. While I was excited to see Alanis, I was also thrilled to catch Angie McMahon, who wowed me with her song “Slow Mover” a few months back. What a talent she is. The conditions were less than ideal, with people streaming into the venue and chattering amongst themselves. It’s hard to win people over with just an acoustic guitar and original songs. But I loved tuning in to her music. She’s a real talent.

While people chattered through Angie’s set, you could feel the reverence when Alanis took the stage. The applause was rapturous, quickly giving way to a hush. Every one of us just wanted to hang onto her every lyric, a task made so much easier with a stripped back acoustic set. Recognising she hasn’t seen us in an awfully long time, Alanis set about giving us a set that celebrated her career. Hit after hit came, all the songs we wanted to sing along to. For me the highlights came when she performed songs I didn’t quite expect like “Wake Up” and “Mary Jane.” Watching her perform “Everything,” a song that perhaps sums up myself and my relationship with my husband better than any other, saw me wiping back tears.

Alanis has such a beautiful aura about her. She’s gracious and humble, at ease with the crowd, incredibly funny and sweet, and so willing to share herself with her audience. Simply being in her presence for the night was so special.

It’s impossible for a performer as iconic as Alanis to do everything you want to hear. We all have songs that are special to us, the hidden tracks and album songs that never charted that we hold close to our heart. Some might say her set was safe, and in some ways perhaps it was, but I can’t fault Alanis for sticking to the songs we bought in droves. It’s the best way to make sure people go away happy. I for one left ICC Theatre grinning from ear to ear, content that this bucket list gig was everything I hoped for.

Image source: own photos

Posted on by Lauren Katulka

Don Henley @ ICC Sydney Theatre, Sydney – 10 March 2017

With some time to myself today it seemed the perfect moment to actually sit down and write about the exceptional concert I saw in Sydney last Friday night. No, not Adele. You wouldn’t know it judging by all the media hype, but Sydney actually welcomed two more international stars that night: Jewel and Don Henley.

As a woman of a certain age, I was pretty excited about seeing folk songbird live. Sadly a dinner that ran overtime and some unexpectedly long lines outside the new ICC Sydney Theatre meant we were a little late, but what I caught was just what I’d hoped it would be. Just Jewel, who looks like she hasn’t aged a day since the ‘90s, her acoustic guitar, and that sublime voice of hers. I loved hearing hits from Pieces of You as stripped back as they were on that original album. “Foolish Games” had me welling up. I also developed a new appreciation for “Intuition,” a song I’d always hated because it seemed so overproduced. The acoustic mode really let its cutting lyrics shine. A special moment between Jewel and her young son, dueting on a song sung for generations in her family, tugged at the heart strings. She really made the most of her all-too-brief time on stage, sharing stories and songs with such warmth. There was even yodelling! I really hope to see her back in Australia soon, because she was superb.

After seeing The Eagles a couple of times before Glenn Frey’s untimely death, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Don’s solo show. I knew the songs would be good, but I wondered whether the Eagles’ tracks would seem a little lacking without the other Eagles voices in the mix. But Don knows what he’s doing. He assembled one of the tightest bands I’ve seen in some time, including three superb backup singers my husband recognised from The Voice US. He opened with a song from her latest album Cass County, “Seven Bridges Road,” a stripped back country number which really showcased the vocal talents of all on stage.

While this show was about touring Cass County, Don knows what fans want to hear. He promised us he’d do the occasional song for him, but plenty of songs for us, and he did. The set drew heavily from his days with The Eagles; wisely he stuck to those tracks where he originally sang lead vocals, ensuring they sounded just right to our ears. I was especially thrilled to hear “The Last Resort,” a song that Don admitted he hadn’t played for decades before embarking on these solo shows. Tracks from the ‘80s were also celebrated. Despite their advancing years they sounded so fresh, especially “The End of the Innocence” with its lyrics so resonant in the time of Trump. There were surprises too; I’m not sure anyone expected Don Henley to launch into “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

It took until the second encore for Don to address the elephant in the room and chat about Glenn Frey, his longtime collaborator who we so sadly lost last year. He told us how he missed him before launching into two of the songs they penned together: “Wasted Time” and “Desperado.” Such painful songs made more poignant under the circumstances. We took a moment, remembered, and then danced. It’s what Glenn would have wanted I think. “All She Wants to Do is Dance” was the perfect closer for Don Henley’s show, a performance that was about nostalgia but also celebrating an artist that continues to be at the top of his game.