Paul Kelly A-L

We were told the doors would open at six for the seven o’clock show. We got there about a half hour early and there were only five or six people ahead of us in the queue standing in the light rain. It was a friendly lot and we all exchanged Paul Kelly stories while we waited. Finally the doors opened right on time. Since we had been to the venue a couple of times before we knew exactly where we wanted to sit and had prearranged our game plan to get our favourite spot. While I paid the admission at the door Toni scurried down the stairs and straight to the bar securing our vantage point while others sort of floundered among the tables and chairs.

Now you may be wondering why we so intent on getting to both of these shows on back to back nights. Kelly has been putting on what he calls “A-Z” concerts for a few years now. They are career retrospectives in which he performs songs from his large catalogue in alphabetical order. At least one song for each letter. No songs are repeated on the two nights and they are performed semi-acoustic as a duo, Paul and his nephew Dan Kelly, playing all the guitars, harmonica, and piano. His goal is to perform the songs as close to the original demo form as possible.

As we waited for the show to start we quickly struck up conversations with people on either side of us at the bar. One of them had travelled from Ann Arbor and was meeting people from Montreal and West Virginia. Another couple had come in from Kingston, Ontario. Later, during the intermission I met a young woman who was obviously Australian. I knew she couldn’t have travelled that far. It turned out she had just moved to Toronto four months earlier. She had seen Paul Kelly perform this series a few times before moving however it was at arenas and she paid $70 per ticket!

As soon as Paul took the stage it was clear we were in for something special. For one thing they did not oversell it and there was no one standing in front of us. The stage was really just a six inch raised platform and Kelly was no more than fifteen feet from us. The sound was perfect for the room. The best part of the setting was the audience. They were all in rapt attention. No one was speaking at all as if were in church. All this enhanced the power of the performance and the songs, all of which we all knew intimately. I cannot think of another concert where I felt like I was so in tune with the artist and the audience. It was truly a communal event.

To the side of the stage was a pile white cards with large black letter on each. He started the show with “A” on a big easel and when he moved to “B” he would change the card on the easel. On a couple of occasions he forgot to move to the next letter the audience would remind him politely between songs. We even got an extra “K” song out of the deal. He is not one to break his contract.

We bought a copy of his book, “How To Make Gravy”. It is a companion book to this concert series. In it he describes how he came to write all the songs along with snapshots of his life and career. After the show Paul came out and spent time with everyone and he signed our book, “To Bill and Toni, Kansas City Here I Come, Paul Kelly”.

All the way home in the cab we were reveling in all the great songs we had just heard and pinching ourselves when we realized that we would be back the next night to do it all over again.

Adelaide

Anastasia Changes Her Mind (a capella, solo, with hamonica breaks)

Before Too Long

Blues For Skip (haunting work from Dan)

Careless

Coma

Deeper Water (beyond great)

Down To My Soul

Dumb Things

Every Fucking City

Everything's Turning To White

Foggy Fields of France

INTERMISSION

From St. Kilda to Kings Cross

Gift That Keeps On Giving (brilliant)

God Told Me To

Hard Love

How To Make Gravy (stupendous)

I Can't Believe We Were Married

If I Could Start Today Again (could have heard a pin drop)

I Wasted Time

I Was Hoping You'd Say That (PK at ancient upright piano)

Just About To Break

Keep On Coming Back

Keep On Driving

Look So Fine, Feel So Low

ENCORE: King of Fools (yes, out of sequence, alpha-wise)

Little Decisions

Leaps and Bounds