Live Review: Icehouse, Diesel

Palais Theatre's auditorium is impressively full for tonight's support act, Diesel (Mark Lizotte to his nearest and dearest). Lizotte sure knows how to play guitar and his powerful vocals are right up there as well. We covet his glittery gold guitar. The Percy Mayfield blues ballad Please Send Me Someone To Love (recorded by Johnny Diesel & The Injectors) proves Lizotte's a guitar virtuoso and what a groove the trio produce up there! Soul Revival is a bit soppy for our liking, but there's a breakdown in the middle of Tip Of My Tongue during which Lizotte punches his guitar strings for effect that leaves us wondering why he didn't crack the big time - he's got it all! 

Opening with Icehouse (from the album of the same name back when Icehouse were called Flowers), Icehouse create a haunting soundscape to get us prepped for one of the last shows on their 40 Years Live tour. Retro photos of the band grace the back screen and we admire Iva Davies' incomparable mullet-mane. The lighting design throughout this show is incredible, with pulsing moving lights and spotlights directing our attention toward the action. Glen Reither's sax solos are flawless throughout and our early evidence of his prowess is delivered during Hey Little Girl. Michael Paynter's BVs are also a standout during this entire performance. But, let's face it; it's really all about Iva Davies: that vocal leap and then cascading melody in Crazy's verses would challenge even the most accomplished of singers. Davies is the master of the refrain and his vocals are still elastic in range and yet perfectly controlled dynamically (particularly during No Promises). And Davies is also a skilled guitarist, of course.

The sultry swagger of No Promises hypnotises. Davies tells us he wrote a song with John Oates, who approached him at Adelaide airport to let him know he'd just bought Primitive Man back in the day. The song of which Davies speaks is Electric Blue, which we're told is the band's only Australian number one single. We marvel at the intricacy of the chorus BVs during this song. Davies tells us that by the end of this run Icehouse will have played in front of a whopping 300,000 people on their 40 Years Live tour.

Up next is one of the first songs they ever wrote (back when they were called Flowers), which Davies says the band approached wishing to write a song that sounded like The Angels, which turned out like "half an Angels song": Fatman. The melancholy Don't Believe Anymore is another sax showcase for Reither - what a gift to saxophonists this song is! "I don't know if it's the scotch, I don't know if it's the drugs..." lead guitarist Paul Gildea jests when he can't find his words during some of the band's daggy banter.

Davies tells us that after re-forming for Sound Relief, Icehouse had so much fun that they decided to keep touring. Steve Bull picks up the 12-string for an acoustic version of The Kingdom (which calls to mind The Church's Under The Milky Way). Paynter then kicks off Man Of Colours on lead vocals, it's the perfect vehicle for his voice and the crowd goes wild when Davies returns to the stage with his oboe. Great Southern Land is a monumental song and the visuals of kangaroos chewing spliced by forks of lightning that are perfectly synchronised to the beat further enhance this iconic moment in the show.

During their cover of Bowie's The Jean Genie, you can tell Davies adores the late legend since his intonation during verses perfectly replicates his hero. Gildea then tells us it's only the second time Icehouse have performed that song this year. "We were not supposed to play that," Davies says. We're so glad they did. We then score T Rex's Get It On and can tell Davies gets a kick out of playing that celebrated riff.

Before our encore track, Can't Help Myself, Davies tells us everyone thought Icehouse were from Melbourne, because of how well this song was received in this state. We would happily claim them.