Pat Metheny At The Sydney Opera House

Pat Metheny
Sydney Opera House
Vivid LIVE
Sydney, Australia
June 1, 2025

Pat Metheny once again took the stage at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for Vivid LIVE. However, unlike his previous performance in Sydney in 2020 at the State Theatre this show was to be a one-man band.

This solo appearance filtered out some of the die-hard fans who would have come for the pyrotechnics of a Metheny Group performance and delivered him a capacity crowd of his guitar devotees, who applauded enthusiastically at his arrival on stage and to his delivery of every tune, performed on a selection of some of his favorite instruments deftly crafted by the Canadian Linda Manzer. Metheny's catalogue is a huge one, amassing some 50-plus albums and accumulating 20 Grammys in ten different categories since his recorded debut as a leader with Bright Size Life on ECM Records in 1976. His foray into Brazilian themes with his long-time musical partner Lyle Mays on Still Life (Talking) (Geffen Records, 1987) and his contributions to John Zorn's Masada Project are standouts in his extensive catalogue.

The staging and lighting effects were simple. A single guitar on its stand, a stool, several amplifiers, fold-backs and pedals with floor synthesizers in front of black draped shapes of what could be...more guitars, maybe?

Here was Pat alone, his first large-scale foray in Australia into the extended solo performance, which would develop into a kind of conversation with his audience about learning his first chords ("That damn F chord!"), of growing up in a family of trumpet players, watching The Beatles performing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the imaginative guitarist went about creating something uniquely intimate, something entirely impossible to achieve if playing with a full band on stage.

The guitarist switched between fingerstyle and flat pick for a superbly delivered medley of five songs, which included "Minuano." Amplified with a microphone in the body of his instrument of choice, he ended the set with a rich-toned "This Is Not America" from the album of the soundtrack to The Falcon and the Snowman.

Moving on after another sit-down and chat about learning the chords of "House of the Rising Sun" came Metheny favorites from the Grammy Award-winning album Beyond the Missouri Sky (Short Stories) (Verve Records, 1997), which he recorded with bassist Charlie Haden. Another intimate chat about that recording experience with Haden preceded beautiful renditions of "Waltz For Ruth," "Our Spanish Love" and the crowd-pleaser title track, with a soft low drone from a floor pedal. The set climaxed with Ennio Morricone's love theme from Cinema Paradiso. Then, a switch in style and instrument to the 12-string baritone guitar for a brief but ecstatic session of hard-driving rhythms to satisfy those nerds who might have been thinking this is all a wee bit soft.

A 42-string custom-built Manzer double-necked guitar was brought on stage for Metheny to put through its paces with his right hand on the top fretboard playing the melody, the left on the lower neck playing the bass line, with an occasional sweep of the harp-like resonator strings. This was fascinating guitar methodology on an instrument nicknamed the Pikasso. He followed delightful renditions of songs from MoonDial(BMG Modern Recordings, 2004) and Dream Box (BMG, 2023) as well as his lushly atmospheric interpretations of "Alfie," "Rainy Days and Mondays," "And I Love Her" and "Here, There and Everywhere." Here was a master in control of his craft.

Suddenly, stage hands appeared and de-robed the draped-shaped objects in the background in a prelude to the piece de resistance of the evening, revealing semi-hollow baritone and bass guitars mounted on separate stands, a snare drum and high hat and at the back of the stage, and an array of acoustic and electronic instruments controlled by him using solenoids and pneumatics, while he played a guitar synthesizer. Here was Barnum and Bailey Metheny, the showman, and with the rattles and a drum kit in unison, he entertained the masses.

Three standing ovations and encores later and finishing with a superb rendition of Jimmy Webb's "Wichita Lineman," the audience departed believing their legendary hero had served them well in a musical immersion with a little more insight into the man himself.

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