Human Nature — Phil Burton, Mike Tierney, Andrew Tierney and Toby Allen — stands in front of Sands Showroom on Monday, March 28, 2016, at the Venetian.
Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Human Nature, the Australian vocal group that headlined on the Las Vegas Strip for 11 years until shuttering its residency show at the Venetian in 2020, is returning to the stage in Las Vegas next weekend. The group’s “Christmas, Motown & More” shows at the South Point Showroom are sold out and set for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16-19.
But the singing sensations will be a trio instead of a quartet. Human Nature has been a foursome since it was founded in 1989 as a doo-wop group in Sydney, Australia, singing on street corners in classic style.
“We’re calling it the new variant of Human Nature, and we hope it will still be very potent,” joked Andrew Tierney, speaking on the phone last week from Minneapolis where he was performing with his brother Mike Tierney and Toby Allen.
Tierney explained that Phil Burton recently made the decision to move his family back to Australia and essentially step away from the group. “That’s what he wanted to do, and we support him,” he continued. “All four us put so much of our lives into Las Vegas and it has become our second home, and we thought about it for a long time, if we should try to replace Phil or go on with the three of us. We’ve got so much history together and we’ve been together for so long, we decided to do that. So these Christmas shows have been a real discovery period for us, and it feels good and the sound is strong [with three singers].”
Human Nature has never had a significant period performing as a trio. Over the pandemic, travel and quarantine issues kept Allen offstage for a few shows, but nothing else has kept this tight-knit group apart.
They are planning to reunite with Burton for an Australian tour set to kick off in April, a logical decision given their massive popularity in their home country, but Human Nature is making plans to be back onstage in Las Vegas on a regular basis next year and for that endeavor, it will be down to the new trio.
“We’ll take it a step at a time and see where life takes us,” Tierney said. “We’ve been talking about starting up a new residency in Vegas and with these shows at the South Point, some people have asked why we don’t do it there. The fact that these shows sold out and people want us to consider coming back is such a great thing. We hope to be back and that will really color the next chapter of our career without Phil. It’s very much a new era.”
But next week is all about holiday tunes, with a few of the group’s popular Motown covers and throwback hits thrown in for good measure. Human Nature released “The Christmas Album” in 2013 and will be cruising through many of those tracks at the South Point.
“It’s really the best mix of what we love to do, and I particularly love Christmas music,” Tierney said. “It was one of the first things we did together, busking in Sydney during the holidays, so we’re kind of going back to our roots in singing these songs."
