Visits to out-of-the-wayplaces like this have been, uh, normal for quite a long while. But INXS, a band that formed as The Farriss Brothers in Sydney 10 years ago, has every reason to beleive this may be the last tour that takes it through America's sleepy college hamlets.
Tonight, there's a show at Massey Hall, and with its new Kick album booting up the charts, INXS is finally beginning to enjoy the results of hard labor.
"We're the sort of band that's happy to continue in our own way, our own world, "says-Hutchence, who will star as (surprise, surprise_ a rock singer in the forthcoming Richard Lowenstein movie, Dogs in Space.
"We judge our success by our own standards, but at the same time, it's like 'Here I am in Normal again!' But I think that may be changing."
He happily reports that Kick has risen from No. 78 to No. 28" in one jump" on the BillBoard charts, the highest the band has yet climbed.
more important, though, Kick is the group's most fully-realized album to date. Tough and passionate, it presents a fervent blend of funk-laden rock and jangly-power-pop set against a cheeky socio-political with that is never heavy-handed but usually on political axe to grind. Despite his obvious affection for Midnight Oil, an Australian band that refused to bend or shape itself to American expectations. Hutchence admits the passion of politics can only be carried so far in the world of pop music.
"The Oil will literally not tour overseas anymore because they have this pure sense of Australia identity," he says. "They're not prepared to deal with America."
Of the Aussie bands that are,INXS is perhaps the most committed to a vision, to a purpose beyond selling albums. It has a lot to do with colonial cokiness (a sucked up by Australia long before Canada even figured out it was available).
Says Hutchence, "I guess what we are is plunderers, in a sense. We've just got that give-it-a go attitude."
"I was reading recently where the six biggest investors in the States right now are Australians. I guess we're coming of age."