POPrepublic (Australia)
April 2007 Issue
Darren Hayes Live @ The Basement
March 20th, 2007

The link to POPrepublic's full April 07 issue is:
http://www.poprepublic.tv/popapr07.pdf

Darren Hayes Live @ The Basement
March 20th, 2007

It's midweek in Sydney's infamous "The Basement" - Where legends from all musical genres end up doing small intimate gigs, from the likes of Prince to the ever pop-present Darren Hayes. The crowd waited for a nearly three hour stint from the "advertised" on stage time, but you could tell the heat and the nachos were not putting anybody off. A mix of "SG" fans, media, industry and new converts, it was a low key Darren that popped onstage to a rapturous applause. This gig was to primarily introduce some of the new material Darren has been working on, and boy was it great. For the first time in a decade, Darren actually had a guitar player onstage with him, and with the upbeat new lyrics and the positivism that rose from the music, the set, which also included some cool twists on old hits, and even a few covers (including an homage to Prince), the songs were just sublime. To be honest, if this album does not catapult Mr. Hayes back onto the top of the international charts, then I don't know what will. He sampled style from ballads to eclectic synth / electro pop, all of which laid the bed for some very internal and expressive lyrics. The one thing Darren is famous for is connecting with his audience on an emotional level, and with these tracks he certainly has. A great mix of radio friendly, commercial and artistic tracks - this is definitely one album to keep an eye out for - and the gig felt like you were being part of history. I love Darren's onstage presence, you know that there may be thousands of other people in the venue with you (or in this case a couple of hundred) but it's like chatting with an old friend watching him perform and it's oh so personal, and oh so magical.
5/5 POPpoints

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