Rock and Pop
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What a fabulous night of entertainment. The singers were outstanding and the show was a blast. I hummed all the way home on the Light Rail. Jenn Allas was exceptional. If you closed your eyes you would have sworn it was Olivia Newton John singing. Brilliant show.
The Olivia Newton John portion was outstanding. Jenn Allas was just fantastic. The Neil Diamond portion was marvelous.
Both Michael Zammit and Jenn Allas put their all into their performances and this came through as they were also enjoying the audience response. Their voices were superb and the number of hits just kept coming. The backing band couldn't be faulted and they added to the electric atmosphere of all involved in the production.
Had seats in stalls. But viewing still ok, and music was great. Enjoyable evening. Female singer has an excellent voice. Only minor negative was an earlier than 8m start would have been great. As finish was quite late, especially when you consider the commuting time.
I love tribute bands. They give you a chance to see singers and bands you might not otherwise get to see. But for our group, this wasn't a tribute show, it was more like a covers band. The lead singer Michael seems lovely and he has a great voice and the band are really good too. But he makes zero effort to dress or appear like Neil Diamond, which was a real disappointment, as that is half the fun of a tribute band. I saw Killer Queen recently, and if you half close your eyes, you'd swear it was Freddy Mercury. This was not like that. Michael also does a Rod Stewart show and you can definitely see that resemblance. My group were actually joking that he brought the wrong suitcase, with his 2 patterned jackets and spikey hair. He didn't even put on a 70s shirt and even try to look the part. The ONJ singer was the same situation. She has a brilliant voice for sure... But she looked NOTHING like ONJ... She is a curvy middle aged woman and didn't even put on a blonde wig. She had black hair that wasn't even styled. Come on! I felt like there was a collective sigh of disappointment when she walked on stage. I will reiterate that she has an amazing voice though. Now for both singers, if you HAD to pick ONE thing, you'd pick them to have the voice... But the point of a tribute show, at least in the minds of my group, is to "appear"like the band. The light show was good, but the PowerPoint graphics behind the stage were woeful. People cheered for it though, when Michael asked them if they thought it was great...? Very weird. My 12yo could have done better than a series of album covers stuck on a black background. What a waste of an opportunity to do something awesome. Perhaps our expectations were too high. Our group are all former performers, and I used to book and promote tribute bands for a sporting club... But honestly, this was like a show that we would have had at the club for free. Not at QPAC for $130 a ticket. I had actually bought tickets for the group as a surprise, because they are fans of both ND and ONJ, but I honestly feel very ripped off. If I'd paid club prices of $40 a head, I'd still feel ripped off. If it was on TV, I honestly would have turned it off. The only thing stopping me leaving was that I'd spent so much money on my group, and we were also right near the front. It just wasn't to the standard of show I'd expect to see for that amount of money, at a professional venue.
What an experience. Have to say I was a bit apprehensive before the show, being a huge Diamond fan but then the band walked on, the famous overture started and out strode Michael Zammit and I relived what I experienced in the 70's when I saw the original Hot August Night concert in Sydney all those years ago. Then out came Jenn Allas and started to sing Olivia's hits and I got goosebumps. She's not a look alike but the VOICE - suddenly I was listening to ONJ. One of the better shows for sure!
