The Apia Good Times Tour was like attending a 30 year high school reunion; the retelling of faded memories and revelling, if just for the night, in the feeling of youthful ignorance.

Apia laid the nostalgia thick with a mighty line-up of Australian musicians from the 1980s, a competition out in the lobby asking for entrants most ‘memorable music memory’ and of course the obligatory sales pitch video marking the start of the concert. Looking around the impeccable Perth Concert Hall the hair was definitely grayer, the faces more lined but hey the 80s were 30 years ago (think about that for a moment).

Supported by creative and life partner Willy Zygier, Deborah Conway came out looking much as she did back in the 1990s, with shortly cropped hair, a sequinned shift mini dress, and mary janes. Kicking off proceedings with the title track from 2016’s Everybody’s Begging it was clear her voice was just as majestic and proud as it was when Keating was Prime Minister. “I know I forgot a lyric but don’t let Adelaide beat you” Conway teased during the subversive Man Overboard, her cheeky nature also later shining through Alive And Brilliant and Serpent’s Tooth.

Limited to 30 minute sets, each artist was kept to six songs as they relayed ‘the old stories’ that had the crowd chortling with affection. Colin Hay frontman of Men At Work and now solo artist charmed the audience, first with his irresistible Scottish accent and then with several anecdotes that almost overshadowed his acoustic songs. “I won a Grammy in 1982, 35 years ago, I can’t wait to hear what happens next” he said wryly. What came next was a reminder of Hay’s place in Australian music – Overkill, the song mistaken to have allusions to fading goats, an introspective version of Down Under, and current works Come Tumblin’ Down, and Secret Love. Hay, older and wearier, is an artist who rather than resting on a legacy is still an evolving musician.

The same could not be said for Mental As Anything whose six-beers-deep-at-a-wedding Dad moves did not initially maintain the enthusiasm set by Hay’s previous set. Coming out looking like art students who never grew up, it took a couple of songs before the vitality of the band’s songs broke through. Singer Greedy Smith, or your Year 10 Chemistry teacher who wants to make periodic tables fun, loosened up through Live It Up, poured tea theatrically through If You Leave Me and peaked with star jumps like a musician finally comfortable in his set. To their credit the other band members looked like they were having a great time holding onto their tongue-in-cheek ethos.

But what got the Cab Sav pumping through the veins and the seats rocking was the dynamic offering from the Black Sorrows with Vika and Linda Bull. With nostalgia concerts, what you get often pales in comparison to the records, which is why upon the opening yell of The Crack Up everyone in the audience sat up straighter. Joe Camilleri (vocals, guitar, saxophone) and the Bull sisters (vocals) were virtually pitch perfect, and backed by a cranking band their country and blues driven classics had some rising to their feet. The Black Sorrows two and three part harmonies were warm and balanced throughout Baby It’s A Crime and ‘the song that took [them] around the world’, Harley And Rose. Standout song of the night was by Vika with a shoulder shaking delivery of Never Let Me Go; a rousing rendition that has lost not one iota of its spunk. Closing with Chained To The Wheel and dancing off the stage, let’s hope that when they come back westside it’s at a venue with a dance floor.

The extended encore finished with all band members on stage delightedly joining each other and enticing the audience in a massive sing-a-long. Exercising a case of ‘save the best till last’ Conway’s It’s Only The Beginning, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcon’s The Shape I’m In, Hay’s Who Could It Be Now, Mental As Anything’s Rock ‘n Roll Music showed not only the depth of experience and talent on stage but also the camaraderie shared between the musicians. For all the ‘we’re old’ jokes that were self-deprecatingly rolled out by the artists, the hunger was still there and as a fan it’s not often you are graced with such a solid and significant line-up from arguably the most exciting period of Australian music.

3 stars