Belinda Carlisle opened her 30th Anniversary of Runaway Horses Tour tonight in Perth at a packed Astor Theatre to an adoring crowd who sang along with every word and made it their mission to dance the night away.
Before Belinda took the stage though, support act 1927 did a more than memorable job of warming up the predominantly female crowd with hits from their catalogue. There wasn’t a lot of banter between the songs but tonight was definitely a night for celebration and with songs like ‘That’s When I think of You’ and ‘If I Could’ you could see that they we probably the perfect accompaniment for this tour – adding a little Aussie nostalgia to the mix.
Backed by a band who really brought life to the songs, Belinda Carlisle was at her inimitable best on this first night of the tour, and opened with the Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley-penned title track from her ‘Runaway Horses ‘ album that the tour celebrates 30 years of. It was a song that immediately brought the already buzzing room to life before hitting the audience with another huge hit from the same album ‘(We Want) The Same Thing.’ Then on a night full of firsts she announced that we were about to get a first ever live performance of ‘Whatever it Takes’. It was amazing to see just how many of the audience didn’t miss a beat and sang along just as hard.
Ever graceful and almost zen-like, and already having cast off her shoes to feel the red Astor carpet under her feet we were then treated to a wonderful and emotional version of ‘I Get Weak’ that really brought out the wannabee singers in the crowd. In a wonderful opening whirlwind ‘Circle in the Sand’ followed before Belinda, sipping on her cup of tea and resplendent in her almost pajama-like leisure suit asked us: ‘How deep can you go?’
That was the queue for two songs with ‘Deep’ in the title, the first ‘Deep Deep Ocean’ again a first time performance before the Jenny Morris cover (also written by Rick Nowels as it happens) ‘In Too Deep’. It tied everything together wonderfully and you could feel the waves of love both emanating from and rushing towards the stage.
Looking wonderful as always Carlisle’s stagecraft is a joy to watch, a mixture of youthful bouncy enthusiasm and incredible poise and delicate, measured gestures she continued to hold the wonderfully diverse crowd in the palm of her hand. Backed by her tighter-than-tight 5 piece band she looked invincible.
We were soon back to ‘Runaway Horses’ which we got dropped into the set in its entirety tonight. And Belinda continued to entrance to room without let up: she sparkled and sizzled with pop-nous, indescribable moments of beauty, impossibly catchy choruses and even a little Spanish magic on ‘La Luna.’
And then just when you thought you had more than your money’s worth came the barrage of hits, at times the crowd threatened to drown out everything! “There’s lots of choreography in this song,I want to see it” she told the audience before jumping into ‘Summer Rain’ which closed with her performing those very gestures she’d called to see. If the Astor’s roof hadn’t already been lifted it would have been then! ‘Leave a Light’ just raised it further before we finally found a moments respite in a short encore break that merely allowed the crowd to buzz and scream and stamp for more.
The band returned for the uplifting ‘Live life’ as the clapping started (most of it in time) and the lights briefly came up to reveal the whole crowd fixed on the stage. It’s a great little rocker of a song, that was shot through with some wonderful guitar. A real step back in time followed with the single that launched Carlisle’s solo career in 1985: ‘Mad about “Who remembers the 80’s?” she asked to a resounding roar before recounting sitting on the curb in Venice Beach and sipping a beer while resolving to form the Go-Gos.
That of course led to the part of the set that many of the die-hards had been waiting for ‘Our Lips are Sealed’ and ‘We Got the Beat’. There was of curse only one way to really end the night (or was there) as the band broke into an acoustic introduction to Belinda’s best-known hit ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ before the song kicked into electric flight. It was a sight to behold – a near capacity crowd shouting every word for all they were worth.
As the band left the stage the crowd just grew louder until they emerged again for that final missing piece from the ‘Runaway Horses’ album – the closing track in fact – ‘Shades of Michaelangelo’ a wonderful way to close a wonderful evening.
The rest of the country has a lot to look forward to as the tour heads to Adelaide next.
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