It was easy to feel the love at The Plenary while waiting for The Jacksons to appear. The faithful have waited since the early 70s to see the iconic band play live in Australia once more and their love for the band has only deepened.
It’s been so long that many fans bought their own children in tow, many decked out with Jackson-branded t-shirts and single sequined white gloves.
With an unheralded DJ playing generic, poppy RnB and a series of fraternal Mexican waves, the audience was more than ready to pay attention to a short retrospective video before The Jacksons posed the question ‘Can You Feel It?’
The answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes’ but unfortunately the spectacle and characteristic dance moves were not enough to elevate the energy in the room to the levels this classic Jacksons song is capable of.
However it did not take long for the crowd seated on the floor to move to the stage for ‘Blame It On the Boogie’. Jackie, Jermaine, Tito, and Marlon were delightfully engaging with the audience, visiting the far edges of the stage and patiently meeting the sea of hands with thoughtful interaction.
The brothers worked hard all evening to motivate the crowd with invitations to clap, scream, and sing-along but the fans seemed split in their response between those with stars in their eyes and those who weren’t quite ‘feeling it’.
It took a lot of encouragement to get a call and response going during ‘Show You The Way To Go’ but it was well worth the sing-along that resulted, reminding those gathered that The Jacksons are a living band – their music is just as vibrant and relevant today as it ever was.
There is an unspoken tension in setlist between the brothers’ desire to pay tribute to their past and to also feel free to play their music that came after their formative years as The Jackson Five.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the disappointingly short and rushed homage to their days on The Ed Sullivan Show, with a truncated medley of ‘I Want You Back’, ‘ABC’, and ‘The Love You Save’.
‘Heaven Knows I Love You Girl’ and ‘Man of War’ provided a quieter and emotional contrast that kept the devotees involved but throttled the pace of the show.
The show’s apex came in Michael Jackson’s ‘Gone Too Soon’ accompanied by a video tribute to the man himself. Although this tour is first and foremost a celebration of The Jacksons’ catalogue, every pelvic thrust, flick of the heel and borrowed trademark ‘whoo!’ reminiscent of Michael elicited screams of homage and longing.
In fact ‘Rock With You’, ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ and in particular the irresistible ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’, all proved to be some of the strongest songs of the night.
‘Shovelling the funk’ was the name of the game during the slow-burning, show-stopper ‘Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)’ and involved a whip around to introduce the band and several moves that would not be out of place in one’s own living room on a Saturday night.
It was a fun coda to the evening and gave the fans a warranted and long time to say goodbye, while also making the dreams come true for two very young fans who were pulled on stage to frolic with the band.
It’s hard to imagine a musical ensemble more synonymous with popular culture than The Jacksons.
Their music echoes through decades and there are times when watching and hearing them perform becomes a surreal experience and just for a second, the sounds and choreography conspire and it hits that The Jackson Five children are performing in front of you once again.
As adults, the siblings were in top form and delivered a show deeply representative of their talent as consummate performers.
