Willy Mason, Holly Throsby @Annandale Hotel, 22/07/05

Tue 26th Jul, 2005 in Gig Reviews

Walking in the door to this infamous inner west pub I was confronted by two university students who threw their arms out to me and said “You’re awesome, You’re AWESOME”.Then we chatted about the accent I have and one of them said, “Are you stoned?” and truly the question should have been asked by me of him… but, whatever, as they say.

And whatever does this have to do with the Willy Mason gig? Well maybe it gives you an idea of the collegiate crowd that filled the Annandale this evening. Politely they listened and chatted and drank during Holly Throsby, who seemed to get a nice response. Songs I heard did not stick with me, but I was hungry and was busy observing Willy Mason soak up the atmosphere in his second pub show.

Willy and his band of brother Sam on drums and bass player sauntered onto the stage to play the majority of his debut long player to a fairly adoring, if slightly full moon affected Friday night crowd.

He mostly let his lyrics and melodies do the talking during the nearly 90 minutes he performed. The folk stylings of his guitar playing did bring to mind some past troubadours who Willy has been name checked with. Willy sang in a controlled and clear style that enabled the gathering to pick up on his words. And the words are what this young man is all about. His songs bring out a positive and close look at a society that is living in dangerous times. Take a look around you… and don’t wear a heavy coat on public transport in the summer time, if you know what I mean.

Oxygen received the biggest ovation of the evening, but songs like All You Can Do, Hard Hand To Hold and Gotta Keep Movin gave us a good look at  a young man with plenty to say about his generation and his ‘beat’ influenced view of the world.

Musically the evening was fairly basic, but it was not an instrumental virtuoso you came to hear. It was a young songwriter blooming…. looking down the road for the next story to tell us. Willy may not be THE voice of a generation, but at least he is a loving, thoughtful voice of his generation.

Almost ‘better then Oxygen’.