"For six young lads fresh from the pubs of Australia, the 1983 US Festival was, at that stage in our career, by far the biggest live concert we had played at. We were told the audience was estimated to be around 200,000 when we performed. I remember walking out onto the stage and seeing the audience disappear into the distance or smog and it looked to me like infinity. Somewhere in my highly stimulated consciousness I heard Michael say ‘Fuckin Hell.' We were pumped. We were young and had almost finished our first (of many to come) 3-month tour of the USA. In many ways this show gives a great insight into where we (INXS) were at then, it shows the exuberance we had and hints at the promise of things to come.” - TIM FARRISS
the last time i saw INXS was in melbourne australia around 1995 at the palais, it was a club size venue, but wow what an amazing live band they were tight and brilliant and the charisma of michael hunchence was a palpable and real thing.. he was australia's last bonafide rock star
WOW to see the early INXS is a gift, theese incredibly talented musicians, their quite unique musical approach and theese deep provocative lyrics....and the ACE Michael Hutchence, his dazzling charisma, sensual attraction and stage presence, but most of all his voice, SO powerful and emotional ...he hypnotized all of us, sadly gone far too soon...by God he was Gorgeous !!
Inxs early stuff was the best, Shabooh is my fave album from them. I think they knew they were going to be big, Andy Farriss is a brilliant songwriter along with MH. Although I discovered them when Kick was released, the true meaning of the benchmark of their sound is always pre-Kick. There was not another band around in the 80s when I was growing up that you could compare them to.
@@TheRooster881 agree. But i say including Swing. i'd listened to and loved them throughout childhood and was 13 when Swing came out and I was a bit disappointed, it just seemed different. Though moments of their early brilliance would emerge through the latter years. Today, Andrew Farris' music is highly generic.
@@TheRooster881 I don't even really like that one that much. It had some goods songs but was spotty overall. "Shabooh Shoobah" had no filler at all. All top notch songs.
Excellent song and album as a whole. I like their earlier music before Kick, it's better and fresher sounding in my humble opinion. That stage looks scary with no fall protection near the edges and it looks like a long drop down over the edge as Michael is running around and that cord lying on the ground one could trip on.
jakeenan seriously? Shabooh Shoobah is their best album in my opinion but to each their own I guess. I like the later stuff too but it's definitely more slick and commercial, less new wave.
paintedship All subjective I know. But I think most INXS music pre-KICK just sounds dated. And they were more like copyists.....like a cross between Ultravox and Japan. That funk groove they later hooked into and perfected made them sound unique. And like all great, unique bands they have a rhythm-section that drives them on like a motherf*****.
jakeenan Are you sure? The Swing and Listen Like Thieves aren't that far off from the Kick sound. Kick wasn't like a huge reinvention or something. They had funk/ska sounds as far back as their first album- Reckless Ways, Roller Skating, Jumping, etc. Shabooh Shoobah has The One Thing, To Look At You, and Don't Change which are all classics. They would almost always end their shows with Don't Change up to 1997 before Michael died so I don't think this album is at all throw away dated crap.
paintedship I get what you're saying dude.....but you're confusing something sounding dated with something being shit or sub-par. I'm not saying that. Kick, and everything after, was them stepping it up to the next level and throwing out some serious heat- the whole package. It was slick, polished and timeless (except for maybe half the mix of X). And though they wrote some great music before that, the majority of it wasn't essential.
jakeenan Welcome to Wherever You Are is severely underrated and might be my favorite of those albums overall. Yeah I agree about X. Full Moon Dirty Hearts was a weak point though.
On all music platforms now, they have changed some of the lyrics. Michael Cleary says " shit is getting built in the sky, both live and studio recordings. So why are the lyrics on Spotify etc now saying cities!?