That Guy Sebastian

The other night, Nat loaded me in the car and headed out towards Bankstown, under the guise of going to Habib's for dinner (a great Lebanese charcoal chicken place with to-die-for garlic sauce). When we got there, he parked the car in the Bankstown Sport Centre carpark and lo and behold, whose poster did I see but the one and only Guy Sebastian performing for one night only?!

It wasn't a coincidence, but a lovely planned surprise because I love hearing Guy sing live (or on cd, or radio, or anywhere at all) - he's a superb singer and a really great entertainer. And don't underestimate these local sports clubs - those pensioners must be spending bucketloads on the pokies because they're pretty impressive even in all their tackiness. It had state of the art ID check-in stands, around 4 or 5 restaurants (including a fine dining one) and more lights than Christmas, not to mention that the showroom was actually really similar to the one at Star City.

Guy did a great set with a mix of old and new favourites from his albums (Elevator Love, Art of Love and of course, Angels Brought Me Here), plus a few cool renditions from other artists thrown in. Before I knew it, my feet were tapping, my head was bopping and there was a massive smile on my face, which was mirrored by just about everyone there (lots of youngish and older couples, families and women). He really is a great performer, and his funny stories set everyone at ease and segued his songs perfectly. Particularly memorable was his anecdote about the poor plumbing in his current apartment in LA, which once housed John Lennon. A flush of the toilet led to around 30 years worth of sewage to come gushing out of the bathroom pipes, so having already been familiar with John Lennon's sh*t, he proceeded to sing his song Jealous Guy.

There was also a really interesting part of the concert using a recording device, into which he used a combination of beatbox, ukelele and vocals (recorded live on the spot) to accompany a medley of songs including Jason Mraz's I'm Yours, Alicia Key's Noone and Travie McCoy's currently ubiquitous Billionaire, amongst others.

But I think the best part of the night was just his personality. He came back to Australia off the back of an American tour along the west coast with Jordin Sparks, and bounced into the concert after a day of filming the X Factor, a show in which he's one of the judges, but his pleasure at playing to a westie crowd in Bankstown was totally genuine. His charming and disarming nature is simply impossible to dislike, and add to that the heart, energy and talent of himself and his great band, and you have one heck of show.