Every Wednesday, every Thursday, every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, settle in at locals’ favourite local for an evening of music in its purest form: The Airlie Beach Hotel’s Acoustic Sessions.
Local musicians will be plucking and strumming at their guitars at ‘The Pub’ throughout November and December – artists like Andy Mammers, Simon Briley, Matt Angell, Pluto Tango, and Lloyd Saunders, just to name a few.
Known for its big, bombastic, larger-than-life shows, The Airlie Beach Hotel is also a home for resident musos in the region, singers who bring out the best of the beachy vibe the coastal town offers.
They’re some of the best acts in town, from Mammers – an experienced stage maestro – to local legend Matt Angel, and relative newcomer Pluto Tango, a one-man looping sensation.
The acoustic boys have been hand-picked by the Airlie Beach Hotel for both their abilities on their instruments, as well as their crowd-pleasing attitudes. Singalongs are commonplace between artists and audience on evenings when the sunglow turns Airlie Bay shades of purple and orange.
On Friday and Saturday nights, Andy Mammers embodies that attitude.
He has become a crowd favourite at The Pub, with an “innate sense of guitar” where every strum sounds “just right.”
It is the casual simplicity that invites audiences in as Mammers changes any venue into a lounge room, making audiences instant friends, and seeing them delight in his ability to emerge from sensitive lyrics to an outrageous Kazoo solo – and making it work to boot.
Mammers has been playing Fridays and Saturdays at The Pub for roughly two years, and said the evenings were where the Acoustic Session’s artists “play for the crowd.”
“If it’s a young crowd, we play to them, if it’s an old crowd, we play to them. I spend my night taking requests and when the crowds are into it, it’s what gives us energy, 100 per cent,” he said.
“When they give you energy, you give it back, its reciprocal. The best parts of the night for me are that the bar staff are super interactive as well. A lot of those guys - Cooper, Thiago, Logan - they’ll dance along, singalong and we have a call and response with them, which goes to the crowd too.”
The Acoustic nights at the Airlie Beach Hotel have one goal: for the audience to have fun. “We as acoustic artists, as a venue, try to make it enjoyable; we want you to come back to Airlie Beach if you’re on holiday, we want you to take the enjoyment and want to feel it again,” Mammers said.
Head for The Pub to check out the Acoustic Sessions running every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening throughout November and December in Airlie Beach – you won’t be disappointed.
WHAT: The Pub Acoustic Sessions
WHEN: Every Wednesday from 6.30pm, and every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, from 7pm to 10pm
WHERE: The Airlie Beach Hotel
The Pub’s Acoustic Sessions are running across all of November and December, featuring resident artists like Andy Mammers who “plays to the crowd”
Other artists include Simon Briley, a popular performer who brings his own original style to a multitude of pub favourites
And there’s also famed Western Australian singer and guitarist Matt Angell amongst others at The Airlie Beach Hotel
