Review: Tim Minchin – Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
Tim Minchin
Tim Minchin rolled into Newcastle tonight to perform his new tour at the cavernous Metro Radio Arena. At what point Minchin reached the arena levels of Peter Kay, Eddie Izzard and Michael McIntyre I can’t be quite sure, but I’ve looked forward to seeing him wannabe rock ‘n’ rolling it up on this stadium tour for months now, and I was not disappointed. The stage was set, the lights went down, Minchin took to the stage, barefoot as always, accompanied by his trusty piano, two jumbotron screens…and the 40 piece Heritage Orchestra.
From the word go this show was always going to be a spectacular event. With Minchin playing up the audacity and flamboyance of his persona, added to the superb orchestral backing, this show felt as though it needed to be in such a large venue. Minchin, in fact, mentioned himself during his opening song that arenas ruin comedy, playing with the idea of the sheer egomania involved in Minchin booking this tour.
For devoted fans of all things Minchin they will recognise a few of the greatest hits among the new stuff including love ballad ‘If I Didn’t Have You’ and gig closer ‘Dark Side’; but the majority of this tour showcases Minchin’s new tunes specifically penned to go with a full orchestra.
Minchin’s stand-up in between songs seems to be shifting between unsettlingly offbeat and quirky little segways into more fully formed stand alone ideas – jokes and explanations to his thinking, trying to engage the interest of an audience that cannot possibly be 100% devoted to Minchin’s comedy given the amount of seats in the venue. With recent appearances on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and Nevermind The Buzzcocks, Minchin has rose to arena level comedy and this change in style reflects as such.
Particularly charming songs written for this tour include a couple of pops at the Pope and organised religion, including a particularly brilliant prop gag about the Qu’ran, and two tremendously writtern songs about the nature of offence and context. Although Minchin has very much hit the mainstream he is still chipping away at the various prejudices and bigotries that have always drove songs of his in this vein, and this bold move by Minchin was well received by tonight’s audience despite initial hesitation.
Minchin has hit the headlines recently for his non-religious Christmas song ‘White Wine In The Sun’, a beautiful track using subtle humour and charm about the importance of family at this time of year, and tonight he encored with it. Minchin paid no mind to the controversy, performing this beautifully and without hint to how much trouble this one holiday song written for his daughter has caused.
Having seen Tim Minchin on his ‘Ready For This’ tour last year I was surprised in the contrast in these two performances, barring the obvious exception of scale and number of musicians on stage. Where last year his tour consisted essentially of a playlist of his new CD track by track with a few oldies thrown in for good measure, this year’s offering does not have a previous release backing it and felt all together more like its own entity instead of something you can already buy discounted at HMV.
Minchin carries the heavy weight of arena sized comedy and pulls it off well, with his already enormous ego and stage persona blown up to previously unseen proportions with the big concert screens, full orchestral backing and thousands of adoring fans to fan these flames. I think, perhaps, Tim Minchin has finally risen to the height where his style of comedy can be appreciated best.
