Photo: Kylie Keene

As my plus-one and I enter the cavernous entertainment centre to the familiar strains of Look At Me, I realise the omnipresence of Vanessa Amorosi in the Australian pop landscape: she’s always been in the background. Tonight, though, she takes centre stage in a curiously bad outfit (somewhere between Rocky Horror Picture Show and goth peacock). Aside from some filler (sing-alongs to Max Merritt’s Slipping Away, and a cover of Iko Iko), Amorosi provides a suitably anthemic performance.

Rob Thomas’s two-hour long set displays nearly every concert cliché imaginable: first opening with a recent deep cut (Fire On The Mountain), then moving quickly to a recognisable hit (Give Me The Meltdown). We have cutesy stories about Thomas’s dog, a little self-aggrandisement (Thomas informs the audience that some of his favourite bands have played this venue, such as Matchbox 20), and a ‘deep’ message about time that precedes Little Wonders. Thomas gives acoustic renditions of Matchbox 20’s 3AM and his collaboration with Santana, Smooth, then invites Amorosi on stage to duet, and introduces his band by name before closing with a big number, This Is How A Heart Breaks. Thomas’s set is immaculately polished, almost to the point that it is in danger of slipping out of my memory on the train ride home.

CHAD PARKHILL

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