Australia Day Live concert was held on the scenic lawns of Parliament House, which was lit up and made for the perfect backdrop. TV personalities James Mathison and Kate Ritchie set the tone for the night by playing hosts.
This year saw some impressive headline acts, including Guy Sebastian, The Presets, crowd pleaser Jimmy Barnes, and Canberra local Timomatic. The calibre of the artists, and the size of the crowd meant we knew we were in for a treat.
Literally kicking off the night and setting the precedent was Timomatic with his crew of back up dancers with choreographed routines. He started the night’s festivities with his hit song ‘Satellites’, and backing it up with ‘Can you feel it’.
The concert physically took to the skies with RAAF Roulettes doing an elite aerobatic display in the air, which captivated everyone’s attention and had them ‘ahhh-ing’.
Guy Sebastian was next to command the stage, hot off his sold out tour in June, and release of his seventh album ‘Armageddon’ in October, which boasted four very successful singles. Guy took to the stage with ‘Like it like that’ and ‘Who’s that girl’ which immediately had the crowd singing and dancing.
Australian legendary front man for Cold Chisel, and one of the best-selling Australian icons Jimmy Barnes had the crowd cheering with hit songs ‘Working class man’ and ‘Khe Sanh’.
Guy rejoined the stage with some of his latest hits ‘Battle scars’, ‘Don’t worry be happy’ and ‘Get along’. He owned the stage and was definitely a highlight. He put on an amazing show and had all of the girls dancing and screaming for more. Timomatic returned to the stage to play his hit song ‘if looks could kill’ and brought a lot of energy to the stage.
The Presets have won a multitude of awards and always draw on a huge crowd and tonight was no exception, they soon took to the stage with one of their latest singles ‘Ghost’ and hit dance song ‘My People’ to wrap up the concert.
The concert showcased some of Australia’s best acts, a range of contemporary Australian music, and definitely turned out to be an event to circle into your social calendar. The only way this Australia Day Live concert could have possibly thrown a bigger Australian punch would be to throw x3 Aussie and x3 Oi into the mix.
