Dave Dobbyn returned to Melbourne tonight for a sold out show at The Evelyn Hotel. I got there as Adam McGrath from The Eastern was finishing his solo set for the mainly Kiwi crowd. It was packed and very hot in the venue by the time Dave Dobbyn and his band took to the stage. They began with "You Get So Lonely" off his latest album Harmony House, and played songs from throughout his long career. It was great to be able to hear so many of my favorites, including "Language," "Whaling," "Devil You Know," "Maybe The Rain," "Be Mine Tonight" and "Love You Like I Should."
Dave was chatty and telling stories throughout the night, while the crowd was in full voice singing along, especially when "Slice Of Heaven" was played to closed the main set. For an encore they played "Outlook For Thursday" and then invited Adam McGrath back onto the stage for the beautiful "Welcome Home" to finish the night. It's always a pleasure to see Dave live and he seemed to really enjoy getting to play in Australia again.
It's been many years since I last saw Dave Dobbyn play live so I was excited to catch his Australian tour stop at Max Watt's last night. The crowd was full of Kiwi expats, which was fitting for such a musical icon of New Zealand. The opening act was Jesse Sheehan, who played a solo set on acoustic guitar. Doing songs from his debut album (produced by Neil Finn), Jesse sounded great and got the crowd involved in a couple numbers. For his last song he switched to electric guitar and brought out his fellow Dave Dobbyn bandmates to play along with him.
Dave Dobbyn got a huge reaction from the crowd as he emerged on stage and started off the evening with "Whaling." Touring in support of his new album Harmony House, he played a few songs off of it but mostly delved into his extensive back catalogue. We got to hear Th' Dudes and DD Smash era songs "Outlook For Thursday," " Devil You Know" and "Be Mine Tonight." The Loyal album tracks "Loyal," "Love You Like I Should" and "Slice Of Heaven" had some of the biggest audience sing alongs of the night. The 1990s were represented by "Naked Flame," "The Lap Of The Gods" and "Language" from my favorite album Twist, and "Blindman's Bend" and "Beside You" off The Islander. Dave sounded amazing throughout his over hour and a half set and everyone in the crowd had such a great time as they sang along to every song. For the encore they played "You Get So Lonely" and finished the evening with "Welcome Home." This was such a fun and
uplifting show to be at and just confirmed Dave's status as a New Zealand national treasure.
Here's the video for the single "Angelina" off Harmony House:
Singer-songwriter Dave Dobbyn is like New Zealand rock royalty (and has even received an Officer New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) from the Queen). He has had a long musical career both in bands and as a solo artist. His third solo album, Twist, was released in 1994 and was produced by another Kiwi legend, Neil Finn. This album features the hit singles "Language," "Lap Of The Gods" and his duet with Emma Paki on "Naked Flame." There is a nice balance on the album between the more rock sounding songs such as "What Do You Really Want?" and "Rain On Fire," and the heartfelt lyrics of "It Dawned On Me," "Protection" and "I Can't Change My Name." In addition, Neil's influence can be heard throughout, especially with the use of the optigan on "Betrayal."
Favorite Lyric: Blood red bloom - pohutukawa, the black dunes hiss with the grasses' breath ("It Dawned On Me")
