Colin Hay ends an 11-year Philly-area absence at the Colonial in Phoenixville

The Men at Work frontman plays The Colonial Theatre on Feb. 6, 2027, his first show in the region since a 2015 night at the Mann.

The last time Colin Hay played the Philadelphia area, it was June 28, 2015, under the summer sky at what's now TD Pavilion at the Mann. Eleven and a half years later, he's coming back in the middle of winter, to a room with a fraction of the seats.

Hay plays The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets run $49.50 to $89 through Tixr. The date was announced Oct. 27.

That gap is the story. For a lot of listeners, Hay is the voice of Men at Work, the band whose 1981 hit "Who Can It Be Now" still turns up everywhere, and which he and his bandmates were still performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live. But Hay has spent decades building a second career as a solo artist, and the solo shows are a different animal: just the songs, the stories around them, and a performer comfortable enough on stage to let a room get quiet.

He's kept that work moving. In 2022 he released *Now and the Evermore*, BroadwayWorld reported, and he followed it with a covers LP that he took on a U.S. tour, per Far Out. He's also kept a hand in bigger ensembles; Glide Magazine billed one of his solo tour announcements with a credit line that included Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band alongside Men at Work. And he's been touring at home, too: Men at Work's Colin Hay announced an Australian solo tour, Beat reported.

So none of the years since 2015 were quiet ones. They just didn't include us.

The Colonial is a smart place to fix that. At 658 capacity, it's small enough that a solo performer can talk to the room rather than at it, which suits an artist whose shows lean on the spaces between songs as much as the songs themselves. It's the kind of venue where a hit everyone knows and a deep cut nobody expected land with the same weight, because the audience is close enough to catch every word.

A February Saturday in Phoenixville also has its own pull for Philadelphia people. It's an easy trip out of the city for a night that doesn't involve a stadium parking lot, and a good excuse to make an evening of it.

What to expect: Hay's solo sets have long mixed Men at Work favorites with his own songwriting, and the gap since his last visit means there's a stack of newer material, from *Now and the Evermore* to the covers record, that local audiences haven't heard him play live. How he balances the old and the new is his call. The safest bet is that you'll hear at least one song you've known your whole life, delivered in a way you haven't heard before.

Tickets are at the Tixr link above. After eleven years, it would be a shame to wait for the next one.

Sources: Men At Work Perform Their 1981 Hit 'Who Can It Be Now' on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' — Laughing Squid (laughingsquid.com); Colin Hay Releases New Album Now And The Evermore — BroadwayWorld (broadwayworld.com); Colin Hay covers LP and US tour — Far Out (faroutmagazine.co.uk); Colin Hay (Men at Work, Ringo Starr's All Starr Band) Announces U.S. Solo Tour — Glide Magazine (glidemagazine.com); Men At Work's Colin Hay announces Australian solo tour — Beat (beat.com.au); Colin Hay at The Colonial Theatre — Tixr (tixr.com)