Sunday night we had an unexpected Australian cultural experience during the Choir of Man performance. It was unexpected because Choir of Man is a musical that originated in the U.K., not Australia. The show is set in a British pub and is meant to be a sing-a-long experience. It was a lot of fun, but there was not a lot of audience engagement until almost the end, when the performers started playing a song that Rich and I had never heard before. The Aussies, however, lost their minds! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more enthusiastic audience. Everyone was on their feet, singing loudly and dancing with abandon. It was great fun, if a little baffling for us.

Google explained to us later that the song was You’re the Voice, which was an Australian (and British) hit by John Farnham in 1986. It is apparently thought of as the unofficial Australian national anthem. We tried but failed to come up with an American equivalent–a college fight song during a big game is really the closest thing. Or maybe Sweet Caroline at a wedding or sporting event where everyone has had a few drinks, but even that doesn’t really capture the reckless abandon with which the Australian audience embraced that song.

After the show, we stepped out onto the banks of the river to see the nightly fountain laser show, which was really cool!