Jive was far from full for the second Adelaide performance by Bob Evans. The audience continuously drifted upstairs and down again, mainly couples and girls relaxing and drinking. The support band Saving Savanah gave a good performance, the most memorable track being their cover of Muse’s New Born.
Bob Evans began his set solo to a subdued gathering of people now seated on the ground forming an arch around the stage like school children. His sweet nasal pop voice was interspersed with Harmonica in an unreleased B-side, Sisters Wedding Day.
When his three-piece band joined him for Nowhere Without You the audience became a little livelier, humming and singing along to the familiar and catchy tune. Bob Evans certainly has the singer/songwriter pop sound mastered and his tight band layered his sound with harmonies, drums, bass, keys, guitar and flute.
The flute stole the show with a Greensleves interlude after Bob Evans finished The Greatest Now. The flautist cleverly swapped from flute to bass and adding harmonies when required, the drums were tight too, but the keyboard/guitar player…The fact that his keyboard was lit up with bright lights and the lights around Bob Evans’ guitar were out of battery summed up the performance element of the show.
At every break between the fantastic pop tunes, the guy behind the keyboards bright lights would attempt to bounce off Bob Evans’ mediocre audience banter with comments ranging from phone calls to telling the audience to undress. When Bob Evans and the band left the stage, after covering Sleepy Jackson’s Come To This and finishing with Don’t you think it’s time, Evans was the first one off the stage and the keyboard player was last to leave after kissing the hands of the young girls close to the stage.
An encore was hardly called for yet the relaxed feel of the night lifted a little as Bob Evans came out minus the band. Bob Evans charmed the audience for a little longer with some older tracks still complete with his signature pop sound. It was an interesting night, watching the interaction between the band members and looking around at the diverse crowd that Bob Evans had pulled that night. The people were certainly more captivating than the performance, but all the same, the rest of the night I couldn’t stop humming Bob Evans tunes.
Bob Evans Photo Gallery
