It's been five years since Beck last played in Australia, and a couple of decades since I last saw him live during university in the mid-1990s. Surprisingly only the front half of Margaret Court Arena was used for this show. The opening act was Australian artist Meg Mac, who played her own soulful tracks with her full band as well as a cover of Tame Impala's "Let It Happen" (which she had previously done on Triple J's Like a Version).
Beck's band entered the stage first before he joined them to launch into "Devil's Haircut." It was a powerhouse opening with well known tracks such as "Black Tambourine," "The New Pollution" and "Mixed Bizness" in the first part of the set. Throughout the evening Beck danced around the stage, did poses and was generally his cool self. He slowed things down a bit with an acoustic section that included a sing along to part of Prince's "Raspberry Beret," a bit of "Debra" by audience request (where Beck replaced Debra with Shelia a couple times), and the Sea Change/Morning Phase tracks "Lost Cause" and "Blue Moon."
It was the songs from Beck's latest album Colors that I was really eager to hear, and they were played in the second part of the set with "Seventh Heaven" (one of the first times they've played it live) "I'm So Free," "Wow," "Dreams" and "Up All Night." They all sounded great and kept the energy going. To close the main set they tore through E-Pro, and then for the encore Beck came out in a white blazer and hat and played "Loser." The final song of the night was an extended version of "Where It's At," which included mini band introductions to their own song such as Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime," The Rolling Stones' "Miss You," and The Doobie Brothers' "Takin' It To The Streets." Beck got on harmonica for a bit of his own song "One Foot In The Grave" before the band reprised "Where It's At" to finish the evening. Beck put on such an amazing live show both musically and visually and he seriously doesn't look like he has aged one bit.
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