Darren Hanlon @ Jive, Adelaide(09/03/11)

Fri 11th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

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Darren Hanlon is perhaps one of the cleverest songsmiths we have in Australia in this reviewer’s humble opinion, melding beautiful rhymes with quirky themes and wonderful detail of love, joy and disappointment. Sporting his new Russell Crowesque hairstyle after his grandmother convinced him that he looked like Justin Bieber with the old, and his lucky shirt for good measure, Mr Hanlon wowed the intimate and supportive crowd at Jive on a cool Wednesday night in the midst of Fringe Frenzy.

Many songs were performed sans band with Darren and a guitar on their lonesome, but the band when present elevated the songs to a new dimension, being a tight, talented unit, especially the bongo playing, trumpet blowing, keyboardist whose last name appears to be locked out of the digital world on Hanlon related websites – sorry I tried, but is known as Marky at least. The inimitable Steph Hughes is of course a well known name in radio circles and her rhythm on the drums moved everything along without overpowering Darren’s lovely, if husky, voice. Shelley’s vocals are a beautiful addition to Darren’s already sublime voice, adding a depth to his last album, the absence of which while not detrimental to his earlier work, adds to the songs off Butterfly Bones. The songs played included a lot of tracks from the new album, with the hit of the night being a tussle between the relatively new but already well loved song All These Things and two of the classic Hanlon ditties in Falling Aeroplanes which surfaced during the three song encore to finish the night and an early appearance by Happiness Is A Chemical which was played with the full band swelling the atmosphere making it into a musical collage of sound, giving it a different feel and more earthy quality than the studio version, but just as winsome. Support was given by Carry Nation, a solo guitarist with a lovely voice and some wonderful songs, but a little bit of difficulty in finishing off any sentences in the discussion between her quiet melodies. Luckily Darren had no such trouble, regaling the crowd with tales of the road and his thoughts on life, touring and everything else. It was a beautiful performance and enjoyed by all and sundry, Darren offered to ring and sing to anyone not satisfied, but me thinks he will be able to ignore the names on the CD cardboard sign with no guilt whatsoever.