Live Review: Guy Pearce, Emma Anglesey, Dancing Heals

There are three tables right up against the stage, with four chairs positioned around each, and, upon closer inspection, these are all “Reserved”. Who’s gonna sit there?

The curtains open to reveal half of Dancing Heals, who play for us in duo mode tonight. They wear matching white tees, denim jackets, jeans and boots, which they claim is a coincidence. The harmonies are pleasing, but lyrics are clichéd (“You know that the best is yet to come”) and they lose their guitar rhythms a coupla times, meandering off tempo in opposite directions.  

Emma Anglesey is up next. Her eye contact is appreciated, but not when accompanied by crazy eyes and especially not when she’s on about “Ghost towns, truck stops and op shops”. Do artists critically view videos of their performances these days? Anglesey’s voice has a pretty tone, but the name-dropping banter is unnecessary.    

The average age of attendee is more Harold Bishop than Mike Young. Guy Pearce opens with the title track of his new album, solo on piano, and yes he’s not only genetically blessed but it also appears he’s one of those annoying people who excels at absolutely everything. Pearce’s backing vocalists are Rebecca Barnard and one of The Wolfgramm Sisters, which is indicative of the quality musicians Pearce has assembled for his album launch shows. He acknowledges Matt Cameron – Australian playwright, screenwriter and director (he wrote Poor Boy, starring Pearce, which incorporated 12 Tim Finn songs and was selected by MTC to open The Sumner in 2009) – as helping out with his lyric writing. Pearce wears a smart, cobalt blue shirt and leaves his spectacles on throughout this evening’s performance. He tells us Molly Meldrum once said to him, “Don’t ever release a record, will ya?” Pearce then remarks, in a good-natured fashion, “You know you’ve made it when Molly stops calling you.”

Pearce’s diction is a little too perfect. To ensure his muso guise isn’t tarnished with elements of musical theatre, he needs to roughen it up. And then he fucks up mid-song. “It makes you more human,” Barnard calls him out, before quickly adding, “It was us, not you.” Then Pearce jests, “Fucking useless!” Pearce says his Broken Bones album was born thanks to drummer Michael Barker (The John Butler Trio) who introduced him to the legendary Eddie Rayner (Split Enz). The album was then recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead studio and Pearce claims Barker and Rayner couldn’t afford to fly over for these shows, which cracks the crowd up even though it could quite possibly be true.

Encoring with “something that’s not on the record”, Pearce performs Angel Eyes. And as for the front table VIPs? May their identities forever remain unknown. All true VIPs are at Molly Meldrum’s party celebrating his 50 years in entertainment at Club 23 in Crown Casino anyway, right?