Melbourne, Australia
Written by Grapes.
This is the true story of a fantastic performer, a mother and her daughter and a freezing cold Melbourne night. My name is Lisa and I will be your storyteller this evening for I believe I am more than qualified to tell this tale as I am the daughter spoken of previously.
Well, you have to hand it to the guy. He knows how to perform. He had the crowd eating out of his hand from the very start of the concert. Everyone was on such a high and all were more than ready to see the great man belt out his best. He was chatting away, giving general views on life and doing normal stage antics. This was mixed together with a hyperactive crowd and a totally amazing setlist comprising of:
Clarity
My Stupid mouth
Something’s missing
Bigger than my body
Wheel
No such thing
83
Come back to bed
Your body is a wonderland
Why Georgia
Encore
Tracing (John solo)
Back to you
Clarity was a great opener. Very cool. Whole crowd singing and it looked to me that John was a little surprised at this fact.
My Stupid Mouth followed and was a crowd pleaser.
John then introduced the band and himself. “We are the jetlagged warriors”
Something’s missing was beautiful live. John changing the words from ‘Well slept – Check’ to ‘Well slept – nope!’
As John was on 'the Panel' (an Australian TV show) the night before, he was telling us that everyone saw it. “I woke up this morning and even the room service guy saw it ‘Hey I saw you on the Panel last night’. And this is the song we did”
Bigger than my Body went off! Everyone was dancing around and the energy was incredibly powerful.
After a drink and a cool down John told us that some songs you just play for other people but he hadn’t finished playing with one for himself. It was
Wheel. Stunning, just amazing. So powerful and the crowd was in awe
No Such Thing rocked though the crowd and John looked happy.
83 very very very cool live! John was into this one. When at the line “…smiling cause I’m scared as hell…” He made the sweetest little boy smile and the crowd went wild!
Come Back to Bed turned out to be John’s 'talk to the crowd' song. He introduced the song by saying “this song is about little fights about nothing really. You know like the ‘break alarm’ fights. It’s like, ‘Hey can we talk?’” then in a high pitched woman’s voice, “Break Alarm!! ‘Oh no! you wanna break up with me?’ – ‘no, no, it’s fine, it’s ok’” Then saying “this song is about a relationship just staying for the sex”. Then in the instrumental he gave the girls advice. “On behalf of the men in the room tonight, girls when we ask ‘What’s wrong?’ we really want to know what’s wrong. [laughs] and believe it or not but you have really shit poker faces. And we know we are in trouble when we get on word answers, [while turning away] ‘fine’. So we want to be the good guy and we ask ‘What’s wrong?’ but you only get 3 chances.
- First time: You look down, what’s wrong? [uses guitar as woman’s voice. Short and high pitched]
– Second time: No really, What’s wrong? [Guitar, longer, high pitched, staggered]
– Third time: ok I really wanna do the right thing here, What’s wrong? [still high pitched, drawn out]
And that’s it. Chances have gone, you’ve used them all. Because *brakes into ‘you can’t always get what you want’”. Then finishes ‘Come Back to Bed’.
Your body is a Wonderland made the crowd wild. One of the definite favorites and one of the ones the crowd was waiting for. Fantastic live and with a whole new energy.
Why Georgia was heaps cool and very groovy. Whole crowd just cruising along with John and soaking up the atmosphere.
Encore! The clapping and cheering was almost deafening! Everyone lifted to another level, going totally off. “Thunderous applause” was the phrase my mother used.
Tracing (John solo) was stunning and beautifully haunting. A sweet song well played and sung solo.
Back to You, I’m sure was cranked up a few notches that night. Rocked well and good. The crowd knew the ride would soon be ending and urged John to play hard and play well.
All in all it was a fantastic night! John and the crowd were on the same level the whole time and everyone had a great night! John looked pretty tired (and with good reason. A 24 hour flight can knock you dead) but played his heart out for us and we all showed our huge appreciation. I hope he comes back really soon and we can party harder than ever before.
Thanks heaps John!
Australia loves you.