Tribute act aims to swing Swan Hill

THE Australian INXS Show is making its way to Swan Hill next Friday.

The band was started about 10 years ago by Rob Moody, who portrays Kirk Pengilly in the show, and a couple of other members.

Moody learnt to play the saxophone specifically for the show and has been the driving force behind it.

The Melbourne-based act aims to be a fully immersive rock experience and has toured Australia and overseas.

Tasmanian front man Dellacoma Rio didn’t start out as a singer and spent his university days in Nebraska in the US on a tennis scholarship, studying theatre.

Sports injuries lead him to pursue acting and he spent a few years in Los Angeles before getting homesick and returning to Australia.

He has always had an interest in music and singing, performing regularly in LA as a side gig.

When he started singing people started to comment about the way his style and movements reflected those of Michael Hutchence.

“In fact, when I first joined the show, I first came in as a fill-in,” Rio said.

“I only had a month to learn a full set worth of material so I felt like I didn’t have the time to both learn the music and the moves.

“So I relied on the fact that people said that when I do my music I look and move like Michael, even though my music is not in the style of INXS but more like Guns N’ Roses or Led Zeppelin.

“I was relying on the fact that if I took the INXS music and internalised that, I would just allow that to do what it does naturally and hoped that that was similar to what it would have done to Michael.

“This tour is mostly regional and rural and we have found that these areas have been super responsive.”

“We are trying to create a stadium-style show so we go two hours straight through, as if you are seeing INXS in a stadium.

“We are stoked to be coming to Swan Hill. We have never been out that way before, it’s very exciting to bring the show out.

“This show has been a massive work of getting it together and getting to venues, but once we are there people get what we are trying to do.”

The band has taken the show to Dubai, India, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Vanuatu, Singapore, Japan, China, Bora Bora, New Caledonia, Taipei and South Korea.