It was lucky that Joshua Radin was keen to come back to Australia with his The Rock and The Tide tour. In 2009, his Simple Times Melbourne show was taken hostage by tonsillitis. This time around he was determined to make up for it.

I walked in at a time where Andy Bull was chatting about his ex girlfriend. The theme of relationships was a dominant point of discussion throughout the night. Even the crowd was full of couples, paired hand-in-hand and pecking each other on the cheek. A little scary for any single person or somebody with a phobia of coupledom.

Andy Bull's set reminded me of a comedy show as he joked with the crowd. He acknowledged that his voice does indeed sound more like a female. He promised himself that he wouldn't point this out, but the need to address the elephant in the room is difficult to resist. He also added humour when introducing new tracks. He played an untitled song, with a hint that it will be named “Until The Penny Drops”. Before starting on the keys he flirted with the crowd, “you might not know me … but i'm kind of a big deal in my house!”. Most people know him for his duo with Lisa Mitchell in “Dogs”. He ended with this tune, which was voted in at 68 in the Triple J top 100 for 2010.

Joshua Radin was also a great entertainer on stage. He delved into the meanings behind his songs, where he was when he wrote them and the reasons for writing them. The first two albums We Were Here and Simple Times were the result of a broken relationship. The acoustic tracks from these past albums such as “Rock And Tide” and "One Of Those Days" were presented with 100% energy.

You could feel that Josh had put genuine thought into the best possible way to entertain the Melbourne audience. He considered that his original fans connected with his post breakup material, so these acoustic and romantic tunes were strategically played at the beginning with “No Ending No Fear” and an encore with “Winter”.

The middle of the set introduced the crowd to his newer uplifting songs. In “Nowhere To Go” the electric guitar was plugged in, the shirt was taken off, and Joshua Radin brought a bit of rock and roll to the table. The crowd was encouraged to participate in the song by clapping in the air at certain times. This guy really knows how to maintain his current fan base, simultaneously encouraging them to move forward with him as an artist.