Our weekend saw us at Warners at the Bay on Friday for delicious ribs, a cold beer and some classic rock tunes from Moonlight Drive, great night and a good crowd, the boys had them up dancing all night.
Saturday night, there were some class acoustic sets at the Small Ballroom, with Newcastle’s Spencer Scott kicking things off with a great set, local Punk Rockers Local Resident Failure, were up next with a rare acoustic set, the guys smashed it, their set was a real highlight. Third up was Alex Party Cat with a fun set of some fantastic original tunes. Isaac Graham, what a talent, this was the first time we’ve caught Isaac and it definitely won’t be the last, just sensational.
Then the man everyone was there to see, Frenzal Rhomb’s, Jay Whalley hit the stage. There was none of a typical Frenzal show, Chaos just Jay on stage with his guitar playing a great mix of new tracks, covers, some Frenzal classics with plenty of his trademark sarcasm and wit, joined by his gorgeous and very talented wife Lauren Friedman on bass and vocals for a few songs. It was great to see the softer side of this wild man of punk and well worth catching a show if you get the chance.
Father’s Day (Sunday), we kicked things off at Pippis with lunch and some great covers from Troy. They have a great new menu by the way, if you haven’t been there for a while, drop in and check it out.
Sunday night it was off to The Civic for Tina Arena, unfortunately, we missed the first of the opening acts Alys. We did arrive in time to catch the end of George Perris’s set, dubbed the “European Michael Buble” what we did catch of this French-Greek tenor’s set was sensational and we are hoping to catch him again while he is in the country.
Tina Arena, I’ll be honest here, while there is no doubting her talent I’m not a fan, well I should say ‘was not’, that all changed as soon as Tina hit the first note on the Civic stage, she looked stunning, her voice was superb, she is down to earth and engaging on stage, Tina has that rare talent of drawing the crowd in in a large venue and making it feel more intimate, Tina well deserves the title of Australia’s “premier female vocalist”. The show covers all the hits, some great covers and tracks from Tina’s new album ‘Reset’, which is receiving rave reviews. If you get the opportunity, catch a show you will not be disappointed, if you missed The Newcastle show you can still catch Tina at The Star Event Centre Sydney on the 11th and 12th of September, for all remaining Reset tour dates go to www.tinaarena.com
Plenty of good stuff coming up this weekend so check out Newcastle Lives’ Gig Guide for what’s on near you, enjoy your live music, party hard and stay safe.
Story and Photos by Craig Wilson,Swamp House Photography.
