The suburban kid is making his tour through South Africa right now riding on the back of his latest album, the Suburban Songbook , which he refers to in his live shows as being the equivalent of ‘gravel’ status in the music industry.

As the ex-lead vocalist for ‘that cool aussie rock outfit’ Jebediah, Kevin Mitchell, aka, Bob Evans, has followed through with his music career now as an independent indie/contemporary act.

As an experienced artist Bob Evans is no stranger to performing in front of large audiences and jamming all over the stage with heavy guitar riffs as rockers often do. However, as an independent artist his performances are naturally going to be intimate, open and calm.

Playing at Capitol with similar South African artist Farryl Purkis, Evans brought some peace to the stage with his mid-high pitch voice producing lyrics on love and happiness. With his on stage three piece band Evans certainly looked the part to be pulling off a successful up-close show, swigging from a bottle of wine between songs with multi-colored lights drawing attention to his guitar and the fact that the guy looks young enough to be in high school, yes Bob Evans easily gives natural ‘feel good vibes’ that most artists try so hard to achieve.

As per usual, an artist in a solo situation warms up the crowd with most of the ‘best-selling’ album’s tracks and then brings out the crowd pleasers.

Halfway through the show, to bring some sort of intimate lighting to the whole event, Evans stopped playing and joked with the audience by underrating himself on the popularity of his album, in comparison to Eskimo Joe. Then continued playing, after taking a swig from his wine bottle. Its nice when artists break their popularity barrier and joke with the audience, its more down to earth and likeable, a very good tactic for someone like Evans who attracts a more ‘down to earth’ demographic of the adult contemporary fan base.

As a pleasure to see what skill Evans has with the guitar and musical knowledge, instead of just performing a single cover, with the rest of the band off stage, Evans performed a series of well known tunes such as: Black Fingernails, Red Wine , which sparked a laugh out of the audience, Seven Nation Army , the Pretenders hit I’m Gonna Be , an Eric Clapton pleaser If I Saw You in Heaven , _Steer _ and a very heartfelt acoustic rendition of the Moonlight Sonata . Yes, he has skill.

As his quick riff through anything recognizable finished Evans kicked off with his more mainstream songs, the ones that people know him for. The two favorites being his melancholic romance songs Don’t You Think it’s Time and the rage hit Nowhere Without You , opening up with the signature piano strokes receiving a cheer from an enthused audience. He performed some new songs as a finish up to his professional performance.

With an encore Evans returned out on to the stage with his touring partner Farryl Purkis to play one last song. Quite a different song to the nights mood but nonetheless it was one of the best covers I personally have ever seen, Wild Horses , from the Rolling Stones. Looking around the room it’s easy to see how such a song can affect some people, especially in the grace of alcohol, a rare few with teary eyes reflecting upon a sorrowful past expressed in such a mellow song.

It was an emotional way to close a night, Evans and Purkis left with a well earned applause, most were thankful for such a heartfelt set.