Colin Hay at Cerritos PAC

Last night was a dream come true for me because we saw Colin Hay perform. Although he lives in LA and performs somewhat regularly, I have been missing his shows for the last couple of years. He has a really lame website, so it's hard to catch up with him.

Colin Hay is best known for being the lead singer of Men at Work. While I like Men at Work just fine when I was in the 5th grade, I wouldn't really be considered a fan. It wasn't until I saw him perform an acoustic version of "Overkill" on the 2nd season premiere of Scrubs that I instantly became a huge fan of his. I was very happy that the song is on the Scrubs soundtrack, along with another acoustic Colin Hay song called "Beautiful World". Both songs are very moving in spite of their simple lyrics. In fact, Mike commented that it is because the lyrics are simple and straightforward that the songs are so emotional.

CH was opening up for Howard Jones, also playing an acoustic set. It was a community theater, small-to-medium sized, and appeared to be at or near capacity. So I thought maybe everyone at the show was really there to see HoJo. We took our seats in the 5th row because somehow I got tickets early this time, instead of finding out about the show 2 days after it happened. When Colin came out he received extremely warm and lengthy applause, and I was glad. He played "Who Can It Be Now" to start and encouraged the audience to harmonize with him at the end of the song, which was beautiful. Then he told lots of funny stories. He talks a lot. But he completely engaged the crowd, who kept begging for more. Every song is amazing. He played one about his dog, one about Jack Nicholson, the song from the movie Garden State, and of course Beautiful World and Overkill, which so moved the audience that they burst into applause and cheers in the middle of the song. And then he played Waiting for My Real Life to Begin, which floored everyone even more. I heard people saying that the one song was worth the price of admission.

I loved the show, and that is kind of strange for me because I am not normally a fan of acoustic music. Only Plugged shows for me. I have been known to boo or walk out on an artist if they drag a barstool onto the stage. But like I said, when I first heard him play that song years ago, I was an instant fan.

When Colin Hay finished his set, Mike and I went home. I noticed a lot of others did the same. I guess they didn't go to see HoJo after all.