Entertainment Diet: Human Nature

The vocal quartet Human Nature wears its influences on its sleeve, at least in its show.

This week the Australian entertainers launched a new show, “Jukebox,” which uses a time-machine theme to expand the group’s musical range from the ’50s to current pop hits.

The show will explain how “Earth Angel,” the 1954 classic by the Penguins, launched the Sydney teens on their road to pop stardom. “It was the first song we sang together,” Andrew Tierney explains, after they heard it in “Back to the Future.”

“That concept of a vocal group really resounded with me,” he adds. “We didn’t even know it was called doo-wop then. We just thought it was a vocal group. We discovered doo-wop through that, which also fit into Motown and the whole world of harmony-based pop music.”

While Motown is mostly what Human Nature performed up until now in Las Vegas, the time-travel thread lets the singers now embrace other favorites, such as Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”

“Certain songs you’ll always hear that are like the soundtrack of your life,” Tierney says. “ ‘September’ was one of those songs, and we’d never sung that song before.”

The four singers — Tierney and brother Mike, Phil Burton and Toby Allen — settled in as Las Vegas locals after they set up shop at the Imperial Palace (now The Linq Hotel) in the summer of 2009.

Launching a new show is time intensive, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have time to eat, listen to music for fun or binge-watch a serialized mystery. Here’s a sampling of their Entertainment Diet:

Music

Andrew Tierney: “I’ve become a Belieber,” he says of the high-profile Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” album. “I like Justin Bieber’s new direction with the Skrillex production and stuff. Effortlessly too. It wasn’t like, ‘I’m trying to be the hottest pop star on Earth.’ It just seeped in. He’s kind of just evolved. It’s my guilty pleasure at the moment.”

Phil Burton: “I’m listening to two pretty-much polar opposites. One is Taylor Swift’s “1989,” because my daughter absolutely loves her. And the other one is David Bowie’s album “Blackstar,” which is completely different from Taylor Swift, but it’s a fascinating album,” he says of the dark, progressive-jazz album Bowie recorded as a “parting gift” and released almost simultaneously with his death in January.

“It feels like jumping on the bandwagon a little bit (to buy it), but that’s exactly what he wanted you to do. Sometimes it’s a little disturbing to listen to, knowing what he made it for, but it’s still some amazing music.”

Dining

Andrew Tierney: My favorite “spoil myself” restaurant is Nobu, and I prefer the one at Hard Rock Hotel (4455 Paradise Road) to the one at Caesars, I don’t know why. They seem to be different, almost like two different restaurants. It kind of feels a bit more intimate at the Hard Rock.

Burton: Herbs & Rye, 3713 W. Sahara Ave. “I had heard a lot about how great it is as a cocktail bar, but I had always driven past it. I don’t know what it is with the local bars in Vegas, but they always look a little scary. There’s no windows and it’s like, ‘Am I going to get in trouble if I go in there?’

“But when you open the door and walk in, it’s amazing. The cocktail list is unbelievable. We’ve been back three times.” He recommends the Truffle Crispy Fries, washed down with The Ford Cocktail (gin, dry Vermouth, Benedictine and orange bitters) or a Bee’s Knees (gin, honey syrup and lemon).

Mike Tierney: Arawan Thai Bistro, 953 E. Sahara Ave. “Another one in a dodgy strip mall. Thai is everywhere in Sydney and it’s actually hard to find great Thai restaurants here. This is the best I’ve been to.”

Toby Allen: Orchids Garden, 5485 W. Sahara Ave. “I’m a big dim sum fan and I’ve tried most of them in town, and I always go back to this one. The people are really friendly and the food is always great.”

Television

Mike Tierney: “I just finished the recent season of ‘House of Cards,’ ” the political thriller with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, which recently released its entire fourth season on Netflix. “I binge-watched it the first weekend it came out.”

Burton: “This British show called ‘Fortitude,’ ” a British series available on the Pivot channel on Dish and DirecTV and streaming on Amazon. “It’s about a town called Fortitude up in the Arctic Circle where there’s no violence, and all of a sudden there’s a murder. It was one of the most incredibly intense TV shows I’ve ever seen. The British do murder mysteries really well. This one is easily one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. It’s edge-of-the-seat the whole time.”

Books

Burton: I’ve been re-reading my favorite book, “Cloudstreet,” a 1991 novel by Australian writer Tim Winton about the convergence of two working-class families forced to share a house. “I’ve read it a couple of times. It’s just one of those books that, I don’t know — you hear of people who read “Lord of the Rings” every year; I’ve read ‘Cloudstreet.’ ”

Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.