When some family members were unable to attend a local venue Lizottes they offered us their tickets for dinner and a show with The Whitlams. We accepted readily as I wanted to check out the venue and I'm always up for a night out.
One of our cheeky offspring asked if we had heard of The Whitlams, and I said I'd heard of our former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and his wife Margaret but didn't know much about this rock band.
On Tuesday evening we donned our glad rags and headed to Lizotte's, which is set up in an old theatre in Lambton, a suburb of Newcastle, NSW. It was a good venue for a live gig as it's small and most tables would afford a good view of the act up on stage. A much better option for seeing the Whitlams than a huge entertainment centre. We did feel a trifle overdressed as most of our fellow audience members were casually attired. Shorts and a tshirt for a dinner and show - really?
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| Lizottes - A former theatre |
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| Music themed decor at Lizottes |
Apparently our included dinner could be taken between 6pm and 8pm with the show starting at 9pm. We opted for a 7pm dinner; next time we will go later as we didn't need two hours for dinner. I was expecting rather ordinary fare so was delighted with the quality and presentation of our included main course and our shared entree (purchased), the wine we had was a decent drop and wasn't drastically overpriced.
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| Calamari Entree |
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| Scotch Fillet Main course |
We enjoyed the two hour show although we weren't familiar with most of the music and we couldn't understand the words due to poor diction (or sound quality). I was most, impressed with the vocalist/keyboard chap who appeared to be le leader of the band, I loved the energy, enthusiasm and energy of the drummer who put his heart and soul into every number.
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| Keyboard/Vocalist |
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| Drummer |
I wouldn't know if the guitarists were good or not but the long-haired one was totally engaged and appeared to be enjoying himself. The other chap was a physical presence who just stood and played; I got the impression that this was just a job to him, there was no evidence of any passion or feeling.
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| Guitarist |
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| Guitarist |
And the verdict. We will be following the offerings from Lizottes and look forward to returning for future events. While we enjoyed The Whitlams they are not high on our list for a return gig.
