‘Mind-blowing’ Jon Stevens gig rocks the MECC
The Noiseworks and INXS frontman took a swing at government policies that put sport above the arts during the pandemic.
Mackay
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In a nod to the year that killed live music and large crowds, Aussie rock star Jon Stevens leaned down from the stage in Mackay to bump elbows with a bloke in the front row while belting out the lyrics 'reach out and touch somebody'.
Full of raw energy after not playing a gig since March 3, soon after which COVID shut live music down, the now silver fox told the audience how musicians like himself were ecstatic to be back on tour.
Cairns was his first gig back and Mackay his second, he told fans.
"F--k sport," he exclaimed to great reception as he took a swing at government priorities during the pandemic.
He smashed every song for his MECC audience and the crowd loved him for it - screaming the lyrics back to him, wolf-whistling and clapping with gusto.
He went one-for-one Noiseworks and INXS songs - with Never Tear Us Apart the standout for the fans who went wild.
All the ladies the Daily Mercury spoke to after the concert agreed he was a silver fox.
Leana McLeod, from Kinchant Dam, said she felt like she had stepped back 25 years, saying Stevens still had it.
"I must have been very very young because I saw him with Sharon O'Neill when he started out with her in New Zealand," she said.
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Her friend Leanne Fry, from Beaconsfield, said: "He was awesome, did everything just perfect."
Michelle Jurgens from Marian said sitting up the back had been awesome as they were able to stand up and dance.
"Best seat in the house, right up the back," her fellow Marian friend Jackie Deguara said.
Kel Mattingley, also from Marian, was still reeling after the show.
"I'm 54 years old, I've followed him all my life, he is absolutely amazing. He's unbelievable," he said.
Cheryl Whitmore, from Walkerston, said she had seen Stevens about three times and described the show as "mind blowing".
"He just gets better with age," she said.
"I honestly reckon he has not lost any of it.
"He's still as good as he was in the 80s."
Diane Dowd, from South Mackay, said she "thoroughly enjoyed the show".
"Last time he came here, he was at the Plenary so you could get up and dance. I thoroughly enjoyed that show, it was amazing," she said.
"Last time we saw him, he told us he'd had a heart operation so to be able to do that after heart problems is great. I'd go see him again.
"We're lucky to have any music acts at all, think of Melbourne and Sydney where they can't. We're very privileged."
Suzanne La Fontaine, from Slade Point, said she had never seen him live until Friday night.
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"I thought he was great, his voice was still really good, really strong," she said.
"We're just disappointed it wasn't in the Plenary Hall so we could get up and dance."
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