Project Description

Rob Thomas

“Chip Tooth Tour 2019”

@ ICC Theatre

13/11/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Ro Llauro

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Daryl Braithwaite and his band walk on stage to a welcoming crowd of loyal fans. The once lead singer of Sherbet showed his vocal prowess by navigating the high register with extreme ease. This 70 year old phenomenon jumped and danced in every corner of the stage. Mic on hand, stand swaying in the air, in the best 70s’ pop rock legend style. The crowd couldn’t abstain from getting involved, singing the chorus, clapping, singing their oh ohs. The high point was “The Horses”, “That’s the way it is going to be little darling” crowd in unison, swaying their hands in the air.

It didn’t take long for Rob Thomas to run on stage singing, straight into song. Running backwards while singing “I love it.” Down right near the crowd. Comfortable. A seasoned musician, at home.  A Grammy-winning artist who hasn’t lost his “boy next door” appeal. One who runs no kill animal shelters and while caring for his wife’s, Marisol, fickle health. Rob’s personality projects earnest modesty. He looks right into the eyes of individual audience members.

A star who is not far out of reach makes those around him feel like stars themselves. He tells the crowd relatable anecdotes of crucial points in his life, one in particular was for “Her Diamonds”, about the age-old story of “boy meets girl” and writes girl song since it is all he knows how to do. Boy realises girl is smarter than boy and does not know what to do. Their rendition of “If you’re gone” teases the audience by raising expectations during the bridge but suddenly bring the energy back down for the chorus with beautiful and mellow key arrangements. This is when Rob Thomas’ beautiful angelical choir of backup singers showed came in handy.

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He breaks up the 2 hour performance with personal snippets of his life. “Heaven Help Me” came to him after a truthful realisation that comes with ageing, he tells us. “I can still party like a Rockstar. I just can’t recover like a Rockstar.” During the new US single, “Can’t Help me Now”, he stepped off stage and walked among the crowd to the joy of screaming fans, Beatles style, guard in the front and guard in the back while Frankie Romano killed it with his solo. Turns out that “Little Wonders” is a song about living the moment. He sits behind the piano, and tells us about Phoenix, Arizona. He’s done his show with Santana, and has to go straight to picking up some “poopy bags” so he can walk his dog in the rain. This is where he went from an 11 feet tall rockstar to a dog’s servant. See? He is a regular joe. The dog was the happiest it had ever been. It was the dog’s rockstar moment.

Rob thanks the original owners of the land for welcoming him into their country and performs the very timely “Fire on the Mountain”, singing: “How do you sleep while the city’s burning where do you go when you can’t go home” while New South Wales endures ones of the biggest forest fires ever. Suddenly, traditional dancers get on the stage and they wave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags and rush through the crowd, onto the stage and all around Rob. After a very respectful moment full of camaraderie he acknowledged all ancestors past and present.

Saxophone solos lighten the atmosphere during a very energetic cover of David Bowie’s ‘Lets Dance’. Followed by 3 am played mostly on an acoustic guitar and piano. He barely had to sing, the crowd did it for him. Lights out. Matt Beck steps away from his synths for some killer slide guitar solos during the trippy existentialist track “I am an Illusion”. Rob soon joins the fun with his own guitar, adding to what is now a 3 guitar arrangement backed by winds from the Saxophones. Everyone is on. It culminates into an explosive ending with drummer Billy Amendola slamming his sticks against the toms and into a 10 meter spin into the air. But that wasn’t enough for the audience who refused to leave. Rob had to come back with and acoustic guitar and play “Early in the Morning”, soon followed by Matchbox 20‘s hit “Unwell”.

He calls in his next guest, Taj Farrant. This little 10 year old prodigy joined Rob and played the iconic electric guitar riffs of “Smooth” so accurately was like Santana was there in the flesh. Guitar bigger than him. Him bigger than the world. What a show.

 

Check out the setlist here

Check out Wendy Robinson‘s gallery of the show here

 

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