Decades I had waited to finally see Colin Hay former frontman of Men at Work, and it was well worth it as his performance at the Enmore Theatre was nothing short of outstanding. To a sold-out house and mature audience familiar with Colin’s music, the show is much like a comedy festival with hysterical tales and Colin’s unique sense of humour. Colin managed to fit in the sound and warmth of his many well-known and expected musical hits and highlights of his career along with his more recent releases from albums including ‘ I don’t know what to do with Myself’ which he explained was recorded during Covid featuring his selection of personal favourite songs as ‘he sat around doing nothing’.

The full house at the Enmore was noticeably completely immersed and glued to their chairs from start to finish in this masterful performance as at times not a mobile phone could be seen wavering in the air which seems to be more commonplace with older audiences.

Backed by his 5-piece band consisting of musos from Cuba, Guatemala and also Colin’s wife Cecilia Noel, the show was opened with ‘Touching the Untouchables’ from his Men at Work era soon switched up with ‘Tumbling Down’ of Fierce Mercy (2017). Colin jokingly shared that ‘Tumbling Down’ fell way short of the huge hit he expected it to be. Colin continued to work through a huge set list of around 20 songs sharing hysterical moments and tales that included ‘meeting a missionary and getting his life right with the lord’ and writing ‘Down by the sea’ after being ‘quite whacked’ after smoking ‘Samaritan tripping grass’. Colin continued to joke that this original masterpiece went for about 4 hours bringing full house at the Enmore once again to hysterics.

Colin wound down this 2-hour epic journey through his musical career with “Down Under’ before jokingly sharing that ‘Johny B Good’ would be his last song and not to expect him to wait around backstage ‘like an idiot’ to come back on for an encore.

Colin and his band unfortunately do not pass our way often enough and the wonderful performance will be etched in the memories of all in the Enmore who just like me, will look forward to his return

Thank you to Colin and Tess (Tess Fox PR) & the Enmore Theatre for having MKA along

Review & Photos by Mark Stevens (@yourmusicpix) for Music Kingdom Australia