Theatre Trip: Tim Minchin - Back Again Tour

Eventim Apollo

Date: 9 November (Tuesday), 7:30pm
Seats: Block 7, Row E 66-67 

(Seen with Richard!)

Even though it was a Tuesday night and we were already quiet tired (and with Richard due to fly to Spain early the next morning as well), but we had even more tickets booked! Tonight was a very exciting one, as we had been waiting a while for it. We had tickets to see Tim Minchin. Now he is probably best known for being the composer of both the Matilda and Groundhog Day musicals, but he has been a musical comedian for more than 15 years! He is an Aussie with a fab strong accent and a really irreverent and smart style.

We headed over to Hammersmith for this concert, to a new-to-us venue, the Eventim Apollo. It's very big but we were happy with our upstairs seats and a decent view. It did start a little late, I think they had people still coming in for a while after 7.30 so we didn't start until almost 7.50! This tour is just called Back (Again), but has the fun subline 'Old Songs, New Songs, F**k You Songs', so we knew we were going to get some fun songs we already knew!

He opened the concert alone at the piano with one of the songs from the new album, 'If This Plane Goes Down'. It was a more somber way to start the show but I liked it. In between each number Tim spoke a bit, a lot about what his life has been so far and his experiences and they were all really good interludes! I love his absurdist  but realist sense of humour and I feel as Aussies (and to a lesser extent, Brits) we really get his style.

After the first number he launched into one of my favourite really old songs, F Sharp. It's very musically clever and I enjoy the dissonance of it! I really love overall how Tim Minchin doesn't ever talk down to his audience, that every piece of humour is smart, even when it's crude or includes swearing (and in some other songs of his there is A LOT of swearing!). Tim even had us singing along with the F# at the end while he is playing in F, and of course Richard and I nailed it!

Then he included one of his beat poems - his first. Before it again he introduced a concept which came up a few times in the show: the 'Glossary of Terms'. This was partly to make sure everyone knew what he was on about, but also partly to point out how old we are and that THERE ARE ADULTS AT THAT SHOW WHO WERE BORN AFTER THE YEAR 2000. Crazy, right?! After the relevant terms, we heard Mitsubishi Colt. I really like that one, and Tim pointed out that it is also interesting because the backing to the beat poem is improvised every night. It was very cool!

Then he performed another of my old favourites - Thank You God. After that it was back to a new song 'Airport Piano' - and partway through the song, the curtains fell back to reveal the amazing band back there on stage! There was even a 3 person brass section! They were used really well throughout, I felt. They finished Airport Piano together, then followed it up with 15 Minutes and The Absence of You from the same album. Topping off the first half was another classic, If I Didn't Have You. It was an older song but in a completely reworked form, Latinising the song and giving it a super groovy vibe which had me grooving in my seat.

After interval we were back for just a few more songs. Starting with Leaving LA, which was accompanied by the projection of the video clip on the big screen (I liked it's stop motion vibe a lot!). And then he performed possibly my favourite Minchin song. He spelled out... C...H...E...E...S...E...! CHEESE! He even put in a break for a monologue right before the cheese puns, where he theorised that this might be one of the greatest songs ever written... Or complete crap. I'm going with genius though.

He finished up the second half with I'll Take Lonely Tonight and Talked Too Much, Stayed Too Long (which sounds like me to be honest!) We gave him a huge standing ovation, and after a minute he came back out for Carry You, a final song from his newest album.

It was such a fun evening. I laughed until I cried, enjoyed the new songs very much and absolutely loved seeing the old ones live. I wish that I could have seen it more than once!