Air Supply light up NYCB Theatre at Westbury, NY 8-16-14

During the 1980’s Australian duo Air Supply dominated radio air waves with their soft rock masterpieces that fans still adore all these years later.  With an impressive 8 top ten hits in the USA alone, Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell have sold over 40 million records over the course of their illustrious career together.  Continuously performing live on a annual basis around North America, a regular destination always seems to be NYCB Theatre at Westbury on Long Island in New York where they are welcomed each time.  That is why on Saturday August 16th the singing sensations was greeted with a another packed crowd in these comfortable surroundings ready to celebrate the weekend in style.

While the audience took their seats many spoke of this being a annual tradition to come see Air Supply at NYCB Theatre at Westbury while others were newbies to the experience.  As the lights dimmed and anticipation ran high Hitchcock and Russell came out with their band starting with “Even the Nights Are Better”.  With voices that sounded powerful and full, Hitchcock walked around the stage engaging the audience as Russell provided great rhythm sounds on guitar.  Mixing in some of their earlier career pieces like “Just As I Am”, the hits kept rolling out with “Every Woman in the World” and “Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)”.  Still as touching as ever, the songs sparked memories of past and feelings of present love shared among the audience.  Mixing things up a bit they played some of their newer tunes including the 2010 track “Dance With Me” followed by a soulful rendition of the 1984 gem “I Can Wait Forever”.

It was at this point in the show that they threw a surprise at the audience and played a song not heard in sometime, “The Vanishing Race” from the 1993 album by the same name.  Mellow and inviting the song is one of those hidden treasures that was great to hear live and kept the set interesting.  Received with generous applause, the crowd was in for a finale of the band’s most commercially successful tunes of all-time including “Two Less Lonely People in the World” , “The One That You Love”, “Lost in Love” , “Sweet Dreams”, and “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”.  Having worked together for nearly four decades it was easy to see the chemistry these talented vocalists share with one another as their intonations complemented one another.  Exiting only to return to the roaring standing ovation the duo went into a new experimental track called “Desert Sea Sky” which features an upbeat modern dance beat along with atmospheric keys and drums.  Impressive and showing the forward thinking songwriting of Russell the track is spectacular and left the audience yearning for more.  Climaxing the moment the journey into the world of Air Supply came to an end with the crowd singing along with massive hit “All Out of Love”.

Air Supply is one of those acts which never seems to let down their audience anytime they come around.  Their voices are still as affectionate and unique as ever and their ability to interact with their fans while performing is second to none.  For those who have not had the pleasure of seeing their live show before hopefully they will return like clockwork in the coming year.  In the meantime the audiovisual experience can be had in the comfortable of home with the release of their Live in Hong Kong Dvd/Blu-ray out now.