The weekend of this gig was a busy one for me with the Paul Kelly tribute concert the night before. I confess to not having known much about Birds of Tokyo but a friend loves them and I trust her judgment so we went along.
It was at the Melbourne Town hall and this was the first chance I have had to go there. What a beautiful building, imagine being the person allowed to play this organ!
Glenn Richards had a half hour set as the support and played:
Lupus
The Slant
Brundisium
Here Comes The Night
There Is No Such Place
Train
and finally
One Crowded Hour
His voice sounded a little rough which he explained to us later as being caused by drinking Sydney water and thinking he had ingested some cow soup which would never be a nice experience for a vegetarian.
Train was dedicated to the Birds Of Tokyo crew and it sounds like Glenn enjoyed touring with them. I must confess to finding it strange to hear the opening chords and line of Train and not hear the crowd go wild.
There were a few grimaces from Glen while playing, most notably during Here Comes The Night however it didn’t detract from his performance. With just himself and his guitar dwarfed by a huge stage Glenn did very well to keep what seems to be fans of a very different genre of music entertained.
It must be difficult for a lead singer of a band, especially one who is the main songwriter to find their own voice in a solo career and it will be interesting to see what Glenn does in the future. Glenn ended his set by telling the audience that “you may know me from Augie March but I will be doing something different for the next couple of years”.
I don’t know what Birds Of Tokyo are like usually but from what I understand this was a very different type of show for them with an acoustic type of show and the addition of a string quartet and piano. The audience absolutely loved the show though and were very enthusiastic throughout. The lead singer has the biggest hands I have ever seen and I confess that they distracted me from listening to a lot of the music ha ha.
lead singer - Ian Kenny
Just in case you are waiting for me to urge you on … don’t = we hang on your every word.
Also … I request a Melbourne montage, compairing Perth to Melbourne
the good and the bad – I’ve not spent more than a night in Melbourne and I’ve seen didley squat – some photographs of potentially bought breakfasts would not go astray 
Also parks … I am quite interested in gardens and parks. Photos cost nothing. I expect great things
I will do my best to get the gig written up by the end of this week. And I also will see about getting out with my camera and taking some photos of Melbourne and then of Perth when I am back at Christmas time