Reece Mastin Homecoming Performance
Friday 18th November 2011
Centre Court, Westfield Tea Tree Plaza
Review by Tori Hyland
Last Wednesday night, a big announcement was revealed that the three finalists of the Channel 7 reality talent show, X Factor, would be returning to their hometowns and each doing a free live performance at a local shopping centre.
Reece Mastin, the 16 year old teenage heartthrob has caused a craze all over the nation and is quickly becoming a household name. Gracing numerous amounts of Australian magazines and many teenage girls’ walls makes him a strong contender in the contest and a likely winner. Luckily for me and many other fans, Reece hails from South Australia, Golden Grove to be specific.
Scheduled to be an intimate live performance at 4:15pm, was all thrown out the door by the time my friend and I arrived at 12:30pm. We came to find a small area with a small stage and around 50 girls sitting up against the barrier. On a sign that had been set up, showed that the time had been changed to 5pm. By the time 3pm had struck the crowd had grown enormously, hundreds of girls with an odd boy here and there were waiting to see Reece, who hadn’t even won X Factor yet! The security struggled to control the crowd and the police were later called to help control.
Finally arriving 15 minutes late, Reece Mastin emerged along with his mentor and 2003 Australian Idol winner, Guy Sebastian. The crowd erupted in screams and squeals and surged forward. It was impossible to hear, and all you could hear was a big loud distorted sound. Reece himself was overwhelmed by the turnout of his “small” performance, depicting in his body language and facial expressions.
Both Guy and Reece attempted to talked to the audience but struggled, instead Reece launched straight into his first song, Closer To The Edge (Originally by 30 Seconds To Mars), which he performed in his first week on X Factor. It definitely got the hyped up crowd moving and singing along. Television crew and cameras were hovering around everywhere picking up the action.
Moving into slower song, Breakeven (Originally by The Script), which he performed in Week 9. The mood of the song still didn’t stop anyone from jumping around and screaming. Then came to I Kissed A Girl (Originally by Katy Perry), a song he performed in Week 2, and caused a stir as he kissed a backup dancer at the end. Reece interacted really well with the audience, was confident and owned the stage, a valuable skill for an upcoming musician.
After speaking to Guy briefly and deciding to play one last song, Paradise City (Originally by Guns N Roses), a song he had performed the previous week (Week 9). I was surprised at how many young girls new the lyrics to the song, seeming as the song was released before their time. But then I rethought that they had probably only heard Reece’s cover of it and not the original.
I was a bit disappointed that like on the X Factor he only performed half of the song, I thought for a Live Performance, he would have sung the whole song.
Guy and Reece left the stage quite quickly, and I was utterly surprised at how short the performance was, it only went for about 15 minutes. I think because he arrived late and how dangerous the crowd was becoming the set was cut short. None of the girls had respect for anyone around them or safety of others, and many girls had to be pulled out. It has totally put me off attending another mall gig, if that is what I’m going to have to deal with. A lady who was next to me muttered “I thought X Factor was meant to be a family show” and I seemed to agree. The whole situation was just unsafe.
I also thought Reece might have done a signing session with strict security around him, to give back to all the fans that spend time and money every week making sure he’s through to the next round on the show. But nothing like that happened.
Reece did put on a good show for the surroundings that he did have, and I would be very keen to see him in a proper live venue next time. He does have a unique voice, along with his Rockstar style and gigantic fan base, he will go far whether he wins X Factor or not.
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