Paul Kelly & Friends – Hamer Hall

This concert was titled Meet Me In The Middle of the Air and featured re-interpretations of some of Paul Kelly’s lesser known songs by a collaboration of Paul Grabowsky and the Australian Art Orchestra, a six piece gospel vocal group led by Tina Harrod and of course lead vocalists Paul Kelly and Vika and Linda Bull.

This show was originally presented by the Adelaide Cabaret Festival back in 2006 and I’m not sure what the exact motivation for reprising it now actually was. Regardless of the impetus the result was always going to be intriguing.

The songs selected by Grabowsky for re-arrangement and re-interpretation were loosely themed around songs that had biblical references or in a couple of  cases a slight tangent into a broader good and evil theme which enabled the devil to gate crash the party momentarily.

It says a lot about the depth of Kelly’s catalogue that you could construct an entire concert of great songs around a theme and manage to do so without including even one song that even threatened to have ever been a “hit”.

The music meandered around around elements of calypso, jazz, gospel and funk with the superior musicianship of the AAO providing many moments of impressive improvisation. Vika and Linda reliably sang with soul and freedom and all in all the show offered a satisfying journey through some beautifully played music.

Paul Kelly himself was somewhat low-key, taking his turn at vocals in an unassuming manner and providing a visual highlight with a dance move that proved conclusively that he isn’t as self conscious as he once was! He adopted a persona not unlike that of Michael Stipe (the two of them look uncannily similar these days) – part ringmaster, part observer, part casual participant. He clearly was enjoying the show from the best seat in the house rather than feeling the need to dominate proceedings.

It must be said that as comfortable as we were in Hamer Hall, this is a show that would have been even more appropriate in a looser setting – perhaps like the cabaret environment where it was conceived. Obviously few venues exist that could house such an event in Melbourne (perhaps The Forum in a tabled mode?) but the looseness of the music seemed a little confined with an audience locked into rows of seats.

Nevertheless it was yet another worthwhile use of some gems in the catalague of one of Australia’s greatest contemporary songwriters.

Setlist

48 Angels
Be Careful What You Pray For
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Surely God Is A Lover
Love Is The Law
Coma
My Way Is To You
Glory Be To God
God Told Me So
Jump To Love
Passed Over
Meet Me In The Middle Of The Air
God’s Hotel
Gathering Storm