Tonight, we see return to the Symphony Hall the legendary Anastacia. It’s been a few years since we last saw her here, and a lot has happened for her in that time, like winning the Australian version of Masked Singer, and now this tour to mark the 25 years since ‘Not That Kind’, her big breakthrough album.

Smashing out four big hit singles ‘I’m Outta Love’, ‘Paid My Dues’, ‘One Day In Your Life’ and of course, the album title, ‘Not That Kind’. So, to say we were looking forward to this, would be a massive understatement. Now the bad news. the Symphony Hall may not be our favourite venue, for several reasons, overzealous staff trying to keep people sat down and the very strict photographer rules, but even with standing that, the sound is normally very good to excellent, tonight though, we thought there was something wrong with our ears. It was I think the worst we have ever had here, and it didn’t improve, so much so you couldn’t really hear Anastacia’s fantastic voice, with too much drum and bass drowning it out. Even the guitar sounded like it was played through a cheap amp. Not that it seemed to affect the audience, who showed their love and appreciation for Anastacia. Just seeing her was enough, perhaps they thought this was how it was supposed to sound.

Obviously, the big hits as mentioned were there, including a heart wrenching ‘Heavy On My Heart’, ‘Left Outside Alone’ with a couple of surprising covers, like,’ Best Days’ (Die Toten Hosen cover), ‘Alright Now’ and ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, which we would have loved especially with Anastacia giving her all. But we were left disappointed. Not with Anastacia or her band, just the second-rate sound. We’ve have seen reviews from other nights on this tour and they were all fantastic – lucky them.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe