Live Review: Matt Corby, Charlie Collins

The AO Live Stage is fast becoming one of the biggest drawcards of the Australian Open and one look at the 2020 line-up tells you why. You’ve got Hayden James, Grinspoon, Hot Dub Time Machine and even Fatboy Slim entertaining the masses, and previous years have seen Craig David and perennial party favourites Peking Duk hit the stage. Today it’s 37 degrees and the ducks are more roasted than Peking. Actually, there are a few peaking too, and security aren't entirely thrilled about it, though it can’t dampen the atmosphere of... muted excitement, I guess?

Look, Charlie Collins and Matt Corby aren’t people we'd pick as putting their hands up to play the AO Live Stage but we're sure glad they did. Collins, who cut her teeth as lead vocalist of Tigertown, put out her debut solo album Snowpine last year and picked up an ARIA nomination for Best Country Album as a result. That doesn’t exactly scream Australian Open, but her voice and songwriting could cut to the soul in a dentist’s surgery. She rolls through a number of the album’s tracks as the punters battle the simmering heat – advantage, sun.

The temperature seems to have put a number of people off and it isn’t a huge crowd that greets Matt Corby and his fresh Hawaiian shirt. Still, an audible whisper of "he’s sooo beautiful" echoes around Birrarung Marr and it’s like the 2007 season of Australian Idol all over again. 

But while Corby the man is just as beautiful as he was in 2007, Corby the artist has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 13 years. He opens with No Ordinary Life and All That I See and follows with what appears to be a severe case of bronchitis. He confirms this to the crowd: "I’ve got bronchitis," before sharing that he too is feeling the heat up on stage.

Even with a serious respiratory illness, Corby manages to hit his impressive notes through a number of tracks including Get With The Times, Brother and Elements, swapping from drums to guitar to a hacking cough as he goes. The giant misters come on just in time as Corby launches into Resolution and it’s impossible to tell if it’s sweat, tears or mist dripping down the punters’ faces.

"Sorry if my voice sounds a little fucked," says Corby, after a raspy rendition of Souls A’Fire, which proves that 'a little fucked' is an extremely relative term. He closes with Miracle Love and all of us, all grown on the same round little blue dot, decide that these heavy hearts haven’t had enough – but unfortunately we don’t have a choice in the matter.