On Monday, 20th April friends and I went to see Jason Mraz at the Palais Theatre, Melbourne. I am quite the fan of Mr-Az (2nd album nerdy reference) and I have seen him twice before – but can I be honest and say I was more excited that Eric Hutchinson was coming to Australia supporting him? As well as Australian Idol ‘reject’ Lisa Mitchell who has received minor success by having a song played on a couple of commercials in the UK and Australia, Eric Hutchinson was supporting Jason Mraz and it seemed a perfect fit because Eric epitomises the upbeat, soulful but folky persona that Mraz is renowned for. Of course, at this stage in Australia Eric is only known for the smash single Rock n Roll which came to fame as part of the Channel 7 Packed to the Rafters promotion. As an example; think of how massive ‘Chasing Cars’ was for Snow Patrol when it appeared at the end of Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy. That is the equivalent of how big Rock n Roll became; as well as in the first season of the show, Jason’s ‘I’m Yours’ was practically the theme song.

Eric came out in seemingly trademark nice shirt, and tie. He must be tall? (Of course anyone is tall compared to myself… ) with bass guitarist and drummer in tow and I screamed LOUDLY. Of course I seemed to be the lone BIG fan on my side of the crowd as a group to the right of crowd were deemed to be real fans, but hey. I don’t care! I wasn’t there to try and get attention by being one of those lame people that yell out ‘Take it off!’ (though.. I did back in the day – let’s not digress)

Eric invited the crowd to cheer and scream as loudly as they could soon as he announced each song; as if they already knew him and his album Sounds Like This (and uh.. I did). The way that he plays the keyboard, especially with the opening song of ‘You’ve Got You’ was completely infectious and lyrical. Just the way in which he’d almost jump off the chair at certain parts of the song, almost to emphasise the emotions in the song, to lyrics like, “You’ve got you to blame for what you do to you/There’s nothing shocking so it must be true”. You know when you watch So You Think You Can Dance and there’s certain songs where the dancers move in such a way where it just fits the lyrics so well and perfectly? Eric sings and plays the keyboard or guitar almost precisely like that; you feel it, you can see it and he’s passionate about his music. Most support bands really don’t inspire the audience to stay seated, or to pay attention. To be honest, in Lisa ‘Mumbly’ Mitchell’s performance, the drum was SO overly loud and clangy, my friend and I covered our ears at certain parts. If I didn’t already emphasise it- she is so… MUMBLY to the point where I would have to translate every now and then for my friend Kelly sitting beside me. Plus, she had some crazy Peter Garrett dance moves going on. Though without the crazy hands. Think Elaine from Seinfeld’s jerky ‘dance’ style. That was Lisa.

Anyway, this was to illustrate that it almost felt like Eric and Jason should have done a ‘dual’ concert (like the one I went to in Toronto years ago for JT and Christina Aguilera)

Other songs Eric performed was ‘All Over Now’, and to the ‘bored’ people sitting in the crowd, he dedicated ‘You Don’t Have To Believe Me’ to them – which on the outset sounds like it would be a ‘you don’t know what you’re missing’ type of directed lyric, but it actually is all about complimenting someone that surely is told often they look good; but hello, believe him when he tells her she looks good. So, really the supposedly bored people in the crowd should be thoroughly flattered!

What really, really impressed me (apart from real talent, and showmanship) was that he merged into one of his songs the first verse and chorus of Kanye West’s Heartless. Just beautiful, and sooo smooth.

Then came my friend Jenny’s favourite Oh! Most notably for its simplicity in the chorus, but catchy melody. Its not hard to want to sing along with it! As we’re standing, dancing along to this laid back tune; he comes out with the chorus of ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ by Beyonce. Absolute surprise to me; and everyone just cheered all the louder and sang along.

Eric’s next single ‘OK, Its Alright With Me’ is another captivating song punctuated by an infectious sing-along part at the end and it definitely got me bouncing and dancing in my seat. A couple of others including ‘Food Chain’, ‘All Over Now’ and ‘Outside Villanova’ (a song apparently about flirting with a girl who he’s not sure is 18 yet or not..!). Notably (to me anyway) he didn’t sing Back to Where I Was; maybe my favourite song from the album. I have a few, but I think that as well as ‘Rock & Roll’, his closing track for the evening is most played on my iPod. Of course, EVERYONE got up in their seats for Rock & Roll and Eric made an invitation for people to come say hi to him in the foyer. I was so there! I thought about hightailing it out to the foyer before the song was over, but I couldn’t leave early!

I was thoroughly smooshed, and squished, on my own in hopes of just being able to say hi to Eric, get an autograph and a photo.  I think I was touchy feely with a few strangers for at least.. 20 or 30 minutes before making my way to Eric, and by then, I realised that I wanted to be different, and take a goofy photo. So I did. And no I’m not showing it to you.  

All in all; I would have loved to have just seen his show again. I would have broken the budget to see him again, it was just so lively, he was chatty and jovial and upbeat; but I absolutely refuse to pay any money to be stuck inside Festival Hall. Never again – I’ve been there once, but once was enough! If any Australians have any thoughts about Eric Hutchinson being a one-hit-wonder only known for a song featured on a TV show; take a listen to Sounds Like This. They’ll soon realise that it would be an uneducated cliché.

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