AMERICA

Jupiters 16.05.2015

America at Jupiters on the Gold Coast! You don’t get much more “Vegas on the GC” than that. The show room, which is very plush, is packed to the rafters tonight. It’s a good double bill with Sharon Corr supporting. America, in 2015, consists of Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley. Dan Peek left the band decades ago and is, sadly, no longer with us. He does however pop up in various still-photo montages which dominate the backdrop and celebrate the duo’s history.

With their classic logo behind them, the boys are joined on stage by a full band: including a new drummer and a guitar player who likes to shred. Tonight it’s the last show of their Australian tour and the boys are giving it their all. The set starts well with two jewels, Tin Man and You Can Do Magic. Tin Man is a stone cold masterpiece and it’d be fair to say the band have about five songs in the cannon that are as good as anybody’s.

Tonight it takes the pair a few songs to warm their voices up. The harmonies on the records are stunning: and they’re sung by boys not that long into puberty. Tonight you feel a twinge as both singers are trapped in a show where they simply must emulate the men they sounded like four decades ago. As the show moves on they do it admirably.

The first third did feel a little flat, but then you’re knocked out by the likes of I Need You and, later, the brilliant Ventura Highway. Another mid-set highlight was a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock. They even had a crack at the Gin Blossom’s Till I Hear It From You, later followed by the Mama’s and the Papa’s California Dreaming.

The show did feel a little long in parts. Sharon Corr popped out to lend her harmonies in the encore. She was great: but you felt a pang that she wasn’t cajoled into being on stage all night!

Sandman was blistering and Sister Golden Hair was sublime. If ever a band and audience were ‘one’, it was right here at this moment. Why they returned to play a twelve-bar in the form of Dream Come True will remain a mystery. All was forgiven, with Corr on stage, as they then led the capacity house through a mercurial Horse With No Name.

Long may they run!

Peta Kent