Presented by Nigel Wearne
Reviewed 8 March 2016
Singer-songwriter, Nigel Wearne, needed a vehicle to launch his song Beautiful Blue, a Waits-like number. He and his wife came up with the idea of inviting some of their musical friends to join them in paying homage to the man.
This vehicle has allowed some wonderful writers and musicians to showcase their work. And judging by last night, Australian, original music, is in very good hands.
However, the show itself left a bit to be desired. It was clunky, poorly organized and sloppily Emceed by Wearne himself.
The audience was a tad disappointed by the paucity of actual Waits numbers. Most of the work was original, which is fine, except that putting Waits’s name in the title leads to a certain expectation: an expectation that was not fulfilled. Each artist should have been asked to do one Waits number in their own style and then two or three originals, inspired by him. This is the way Spoken Word tributes of a similar style are run, and it works well. Also, allocation of the few Waits songs that were done was a bit odd: two, different artists performed Chocolate Jesus, and yet no-one did other big numbers such as Heart-attack and Vine, Jersey Girl or Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis. Artists changed over too much, sometimes getting up to do only one song. This added to the clunkiness and made the night longer than it needed to be.
Wearne is very personable, however his Emcee skills need honing. Many artists were not announced at all, or announced by a shout from the back of the room, or simply asked “ok…who’s next?”. Just not good enough.
This show is a great idea, poorly executed, but saved by the quality of the performers including Cal Williams Jnr, Emily Davis, Jed Rowe, the amazing blue-grass outfit Astro Cobalt and Adelaide’s own The Yearlings.
I hope Wearne tidies it up and brings it back to Adelaide in the future.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
Twitter: @TraceyKorsten
Rating (out of 5): 3
Venue: The Wheatsheaf Hotel
Season: 8,9 March
Duration: 180 minutes
Tickets: $20
More News
