Icehouse Adelaide review 2017: Iva Davies and friends put on a scorching gig at Thebarton Theatre

“It's always cold inside the Icehouse”. Not on Thursday night it wasn’t. It was bloody boiling. But the Aussie rock veterans put on an appropriately scorching show on their 40th anniversary tour.

Iva Davies has a pretty well-developed sense of irony, so you can tell he enjoyed singing the initial line of Thursday night’s 40th anniversary tour concert: “It’s always cold inside the Icehouse”.

It wasn’t — it was bloody boiling. More hotbox than Icehouse.

At least the power stayed on. Be thankful for small mercies, Adelaide.

But in the end the oppressive heat inside Thebarton Theatre — which created its own microclimate of sweat mist above the crowd — was kind of appropriate.

This was a searingly good concert by a band of top-notch musicians with a deep back catalogue of great songs.

And the relative rarity of a full-scale tour by Iva and friends meant the audience was pumped from the first thumping drumbeats.

Icehouse at the Thebarton Theatre. Picture: Michael Owen-Brown

Things hadn’t gone smoothly in the lead-up to the gig — two shows in Perth were cancelled due to a “medical emergency”, which turned out to be what appeared to be a broken arm for lead guitarist Paul Gildea. “I got a BMX for Christmas,” he joked to the crowd.

Hmmm, slight hiccup. But these guys are such virtuoso musicians that keyboardist Michael Paynter switched to lead guitar and Gildea played one-handed keyboards — and the band still managed to blow away its demanding audience.

No sweat — well, figuratively speaking anyway.

Who knows what the temperature was inside the Thebby — many fans took the term literally by fanning themselves with tickets just to stay upright. But the show was just so damn fine that by the end almost all the folks in the all-seated auditorium were on their feet rocking out.

Frontman Iva Davies is a magnetic presence.

From the mainstream hits like Crazy, Electric Blue and an appropriately red-hot rendition of Touch The Fire, to the delicate beauty of No Promises and a majestic Don’t Believe Anymore, the gig maintained momentum throughout.

This was aided by a pristine sound mix and spectacular light show with real visual impact, most notably with the German reunification montage that accompanied Cross The Border.

While Davies is an elegant and engaging frontman who is clearly adored by his fans, the band’s young gun Michael Paynter also impressed. It can’t have been easy learning all the lead guitar parts in just a week, but he proved he is a multi-talented muso by taking lead vocals for a beautiful rendition of Man Of Colours, accompanied by Davies on the oboe.

Icehouse at the Thebarton Theatre. Picture: Michael Owen-Brown

Great Southern Land had the crowd singing as one (naturally) and Can’t Help Myself was also memorable for its crowd interaction, before the slightly left-field closer of Nothing Too Serious.

I could name at least five classic songs that we didn’t hear — but that depth is why Icehouse can still sell out a good-sized venue like the Thebby after four decades. Maybe We Can Get Together again sometime soon, Iva?