A Girls night out with Darren Hayes at the Roxy
Recently, chingpea and I traveled to Hollywood for a girl’s night out with Darren Hayes at the famous Roxy nightclub.



I don’t know what it is about Hollywood, perhaps it’s the gritty underbelly night life, or the magical feeling that celebrities frequent those clubs, those restaurants, or the realization that “this is where the movies are made,” the giant building size movie billboards, or maybe it’s the stars on the sidewalks, but I love exploring Hollywood. And I haven’t done a lot of Hollywood exploring in my life. My first real Hollywood experience was the night I blew my knee out after seeing the play Trainspotting. Since then I’ve only ventured to Hollywood a few times. I saw World Wide Spies at the Viper Room, I’ve eaten at Astro Burger and Mel’s Drive Thru and I’ve walked around Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. So, I was very excited to see my favorite pop star and the Roxy all on the same night.





Apparently everyone else in the world had the same idea of going out in Hollywood that night. The Los Angeles Film Festival was in full fanfare at the Hollywood Bowl, Ratatouille was premiering at the Kodak Theatre with some red carpet action, Darren Hayes was at the Roxy, Prince was at the Roosevelt Hotel for his seven gig stay, and there were many other events going on as well. What did all of these Hollywood events have to do with two Smalltown girls on a mission to see Darren Hayes?

Traffic. Detours. And Parking.

We navigated through constipated traffic and Hollywood detours in a giant truck we weren’t used to driving as we tried to get to the Roxy on Sunset. Let me just say chingpea is the master of LA traffic! I would have had a nervous breakdown driving that truck in that traffic. With all the detours, we couldn’t figure out how to get back to Sunset. So we asked a man on one of the side streets and he said, “go up to the corner, 'Roger-it' and that street will take you to Sunset, the Roxy will just be a little ways down from there,” turned out he was a regular at the Roxy. I was glad that chingpea was driving, because I had no idea what 'Roger-it' meant!

Once we found the Roxy, we had to find parking. The first public parking lot we tried charged thirty dollars to park! We kept driving until we found one under ten dollars and luckily it was within walking distance of the Roxy. Outside the Roxy, we waited in a line that was at least three blocks long and grew the longer we waited.

So did my excitement…

Unlike John Mayer’s concert where I fell under his gravitational spell, I’ve been in LOVE with Darren Hayes and his music for the past eight years. I’ll admit that I’ve been in love to the point of musical pop star obsession. His music has affected me that much. Not only was I about to see a rare Darren Hayes U.S. performance, (he hasn’t toured in the U.S. since 2000) but it was also chingpea’s Darren Hayes initiation. I wondered if she would love him as much as I did?

Soon the line started moving and we were finally inside the famous Roxy nightclub. It was really dark inside the Roxy! We crowded in as close as we could to the stage and waited with hundreds of fans all in love with Darren Hayes for what was to be an amazing show.

There were two opening acts: Julien and Tempo Shark. Both were a perfect combination of music to compliment Darren Hayes. Julien was an acoustic duo with a beautiful tenor voice whose music I really enjoyed.



And Tempo Shark was an electro-pop band whose lead singer was flirty, and their music made you want to dance.





The excitement in the crowd began to spark after Tempo Shark left the stage. The vibe was infectious and soon the crowd began to chant Darren’s name. When Darren Hayes took the stage, it was like he had never been gone. Darren wrote about the show on his blog:

“At first, the chanting of my name and the screaming I honestly thought must have been for something else. I did not expect such a vibe and it fueled a show that the band and crew were calling the best on the tour.”

I was so glad to be there with chingpea, among those people and Darren Hayes, at the Roxy, in that magical moment. It was surreal.





Darren performed an electric energized set that included old Savage Garden favorites: I Want You, Carry on Dancing and an acoustic version of I Don’t Know You Anymore. The crowd sang along to I Don’t Know You Anymore drowning Darren out until he stopped singing and listened to the sea of voices for a few lines. It was an incredible moment. So personal. So intimate.




Carry on Dancing - (Lighting is dark, but sound quality is good)

He did not perform the expected Savage Garden number one hits, focusing instead on the new music from his upcoming album This Delicate Thing We’ve Made including: On the Verge of Something Wonderful, Who Would Have Thought, Step into the Light and How to Build a Time Machine. How to Build a Time Machine is an amazing song! Wouldn't we all like to build a time machine and go back in time and bring back only the joy in our lives. I know I would.

He seemed to be more focused on the future than the past both musically and personally. His new music, like his new life, and even the way he performed/reworked his old music, had an infectious sincere happy vibe that made you believe all was right with the world.




How to Build a Time Machine - Darren tells a story at beginning of video.(Lighting is dark, but sound quality is good)

He may not have performed some of my old favorite Savage Garden hits, but Darren did perform some of my favorite songs from his Tension and the Spark album, which I listen to constantly, including: Unlovable and I Like the Way. Unlovable was amazing live!



Surprisingly he also performed a dead-on cover of Prince’s Baby I’m a Star, which was out of this world. He ended it with his own Pop!ular and joked about “Bringing Sexy Back.”



Darren came back on stage at the end of the night to perform Void and Insatiable as a double encore, both were incredible live, and he left us all wanting more… especially this Smalltown girl.

He also joked about the reasons he hadn’t performed in the U.S. in seven years stating:

“I got Kelly Clarksoned. I put out two albums that I really believed in which got buried by a big, bad record label. I spent some time finding myself, and I got married to my boyfriend. You can do that in England!”

The crowd screamed and cheered louder and was Truly Madly Crazy for him. His long absence was forgiven.

Darren Hayes ROCKED the Roxy!

At the end of the show, as chingpea and I ventured out onto Sunset again, I realized that the intimate, up close and personal setting of the Roxy was the only way to see Darren Hayes perform. He had shared something special with us, part of himself, that wouldn’t have happened in a much larger venue. And I was even more in love with him and his music than before.

After such a great night of music... we rode Darren's vibe out into the night to conquer L.A. traffic again in the giant truck. As we drove down Sunset past the Ivy we saw about twenty Paparrazi photographing someone in a SUV parked outside. The camera flashes sparkled in the night like fireworks but we couldn't see which celebrity they were stalking. It was my first Paparrazi sighting. It was Hollywood.

Photos/videos by: chingpea

Labels: Bakersfield, Darren Hayes, Hollywood, LA Film Festival, Music, paparrazi, pop, Prince, Ratatouille, Smalltown Girls, The Roxy

  posted by Matildakay at 7:03 PM 2 comments