INXS - Mystify
(Eagle Vision - 2010)

1997 SET: Elegantly Wasted, New Sensation, Taste It, I’m Just A Man, Heaven Sent, Searching, Disappear, Disappear, Never Tear Us Apart, Everything, Need You Tonight, Bitter Tears, Girl On Fire, Kick, Devil Inside, What You Need, Don’t Lose Your Head, Mystify, Suicide Blonde.

1984 SET: Just Keep Walking, The One Thing, I Send A Message, Original Sin, Don’t Change, Stay Young.

He’s been gone over thirteen years and still the legend of Mike Hutchence cant be stopped from living on.

This impressive show from Germany’s Rockpalast event in 1997, about three months to his ending up on the business end of a self-made noose captures the legendary Oz combo at their very best. Still battling on strong right at the extreme depth of the alternative/grunge domination and proving they could pack them in by the thousand INXS were a roaring machine right up to then and apart form Hutchence’s personal life appeared to be showing no signs of struggling. Having been the tenth anniversary at that time of their classic ‘Kick’ LP, I was somewhat baffled to only find six of its numbers on the list but they’ve got plenty of goodies from across their career span on offer alongside them with a handful of cuts off their latest album at the time going down very strong.

The Hutch’s performance is as good as it could get with his powerfully deep rich pipes wiping the floor with every tune , punctuated by his immense stage swagger and he’s not also afraid to let his language go a bit with at least two F-words between songs. The rest of the band are in healthy form delivering the notes with suss and soul though their stage presence is minimised, doubled up for by some dubiously ott outfits, (the drummers plastic orange shirt most notably). For a welcome treat there is the bonus of a short 6-song set from the groups previous appearance at Rockpalast thirteen years earlier where the band in their mullet-clad days were already making waves across the globe and also had a fair hard rock tendency in areas of their material.

INXS may be still around and now with a new frontman filling the empty mike stool and yes, we have to move on, obviously, but in showing an understanding side of the dice for the purists, this is how the man should be remembered.

9/10

By Dave Attrill