Regular readers may have noted that I haven’t reported on The Voice as I have other reality music franchises. It’s been a deliberate exile to be honest. While I’m tuning in I want to experience this one rather than feeling that pressure to type away each evening. Besides, no one needs to read what I’m writing around those late 10 pm finishes.
But I felt like weighing in now in the face of some shock eliminations. Having watched the first American series I knew what we were in for. I was so excited by the talent I saw, although I was nervous knowing the battle rounds were to come. These are tough, with singers paired up, forced to sing songs that may play to their competition’s strengths more than their own, forced to compete directly against other major players. It’s cutthroat stuff. I can’t say I was happy with every decision made last night, but it’s the nature of a format designed to keep the pace moving.
Much has been made of Mahalia Barnes elimination. Her battle with Prinnie Stevens divided us in the lounge room. I understood why Joel paired them as they were bound to split votes, but it would have been a loss whichever way it fell. For what it’s worth I would have backed Mahalia, but I wonder whether that’s because I’ve seen her live many times before.
Honestly I was most disappointed by the matchup of Adam Hoek and Rachael Leahcar. It was only ever going to go one way, and Adam ended up feeling like a sacrificial lamb. I think the competition will be a lot poorer without him. With a different song and a different partner it could have been so different.
The Mitchell Thompson and Fatai Veamatahau battle also divided us. Frankly the performance was so searing neither of them deserved to depart. But it’s the nature of the beast, and again we lost another talent far too soon.
The Voice is far from an even playing field. I expect more shocks as I watch this evening. But I prefer this cutthroat fast-paced show over those drawn out reality TV shows any day, don’t you?
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The site was painfully slow from the get go, but eventually it spat out some great tickets. I attempted to pay for them, only to be told there was an “unspecified error.” And again, and again as the site’s timer counted me down before logging me out and releasing those coveted tickets back to the masses. And so I remained logged out, seeing only a message telling me of high traffic, for another 15 minutes. I called frantically on the phone at the same time with no success. Finally I was in the site again. And along it crawled until it spat out some nosebleed tickets. Disgusted, I threw them back and persevered until at 10:30, an hour and a half after my Prince concert ticket buying adventure began, I secured two reasonable tickets to the Brisbane show. They’re not as good as the ones I was first told were mine, but after reading some horror stories I feel like one of the lucky ones. My gal pal Lisa and I will undoubtedly have an awesome time at the show.
They came, they saw, they rocked with shows up and down the East Coast. And now they intend to go out in a blaze of glory with one final show for hometown fans. See Secretive George’s swan song at The Evelyn Hotel on April 26. With 11 of their closest band pals on the bill, it’s promising to be a very big night!
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Ticket holders will be entertained by Brisbane dance act Mitzi, Triple J darlings Glass Towers, as well as Toucan, Colour Coding, Conics, and Lancelot. If you can’t make it to the event you can also download Let’s Band Together, a compilation which features tracks from all contributing artists. You’ll find it at 
Hilltop Hoods have maintained their grip on the ARIA album charts. For the second week the band’s latest offering Drinking from the Sun sits at the number one spot.
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Kiama’s