Presented by Premier Artists
Reviewed Wednesday 13th March 2013
Up-and-coming singing sensation, Hayden Calnin makes his guitar soar as fantastically as his voice. His brooding ballads unveil a good vocal range and a poetic heart. Alas, as a performer, he makes a fine recording artist.
With his unobtrusive entrance, wearing jeans and an old t-shirt, no one knew he was the star of this solo show until he muttered “hello” into the microphone. During the concert Calnin barely made eye contact with his audience, preferring instead to look down at his fingers. When he did look up to converse with the punters, his boyish charm was engaging, but any rapport was quickly lost when the next song began and he once again sung to his feet.
The show appeared only loosely planned, with Calnin checking his watch for the time, and successfully winging one number on his guitar which would normally be played on his broken keyboard.
The small but appreciative audience sincerely loved the music, and it would be difficult to ignore his talent. He truly is beautiful to hear but, for a long career, there’s a lot of work ahead of him to be visually entertaining too.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis, Performing Arts Critic, Glam Adelaide.
Venue: Paradiso Spiegeltent, Garden of Unearthly Delights, Rundle Park, Adelaide
Season ended
Duration: 1 hour