Colin Hay's Cheeky Melancholia

Colin Hay is a charming bloke.

The former Men At Work frontman and "Scrubs" favorite continued building on his slow and steady post-MTV solo career with an entertaining 90 minute show Saturday night at Palm Beach County's newest venue, The Borland Center.  Hay wrapped his literate ballads and acoustic versions of his 80's hits with a steady and funny recounting of his 30+ year career.  Nearly a third of the 90-minute show was Hay's hilarious commentary. 

Some of the revelations:

• All the Men At Work hits, "Down Under," "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Overkill," were written while stoned.  Not exactly a surprise considering the genre, but it does explain the shout-out to the vegemite sandwich.
• The previous night's show in Jacksonville did not go well.  According to Hay, the venue had a meth lab in the back. There is no reason to doubt him.
• When an audience member broke out the handy-cam and started videotaping in the 21st century version of flicking one's Bic at a concert, Hay politely and firmly chided him to stop.  Saying he "didn't want to sing to a red light," Hay said he hates to have his shows on the ubiquitous YouTube because his audience will hear all his bits before attending the show.  A very honest answer and a welcome retort to our "look what I saw" culture.

Perhaps the main revelation and the overriding theme of the evening was Hay's 1991 sacking by MCA records. He spoke of it twice.  When he wasn't enthralling the crowd with humorous tales of his post-stardom life, he performed a strong selection of his well-crafted songs filled with his brand of cheeky melancholia

During the encore, Hay spoke of his desire to return to a larger stage of stardom.  It was a perfect set-up final song, "Waiting for My Real Life to Begin" - a song about the longing for the life we want to live.  It appears that Hay is well on the way to reaching this life. 

“Waiting For My Real Life To Begin” by Colin Hay (mp3)(iTunes)(Amazon)