Dan Sultan

Is there anything Dan Sultan can’t do? Over the past couple of years the man has appeared over every inch of the local music scene. He’s toured, supported, lined himself up on all the best festivals, and even further expanded his fan base via Bran Nue Dae.

Then there was the whole stealing-the-show thing when he appeared at the Paul Kelly tribute last November. It’s pretty easy to see how Dan Sultan’s gathered a huge bunch of faithful listeners.

Oh, and did I mention he can seriously sing and perform as well?

Opening the night’s sold out show at St Kilda’s Prince of Wales were friends of Sultan, The Hello Morning, who filled out the stage nicely with eight members. The extra couple came via an added horns section, which from the beginning brought added life to the band’s sound.

Country rock and high spirits entertained the wide arch of early comers (who only dared creep forward near the end of the set) for the band’s generous support slot of an hour. Plenty of cheerful banter from frontman Steven Clifford helped to keep things engaging, too.

The horns and the sounds of Joe Cope’s keys added real life to the guitar dominated sound that rounded out nicely. And if there’s one thing the band likes to do, it’s round things out – the final three tracks finishing up “big”, as though each could have been the last.

The Prince is certainly a packed place when sold out, but the tight crowd was more than eager as Sultan and guitarist, Scott Wilson, appeared on stage soon after The Hello Morning.

Welcoming the room and announcing that a few slow songs would start things off, Sultan began his set with new album title track, ‘Get Out While You Can’. The opener was certainly a subtle way to kick things off, but showed off the power and beauty in Sultan’s voice.

The slow start was not about to carry through the next hour and a half though, and before long Sultan’s brigade had matched the numbers of the support.

Story-telling and jokes made up the between-song banter and spotless vocals and big moves made up the tracks themselves - as well as heaps of rollicking guitar on the likes of ‘Dingo’ and hefty horn accompaniment of the likes of ‘Crazy’.

The set was certainly about Sultan’s new second album, with few songs from Homemade Biscuits making the cut. Set staple, ‘This Land Is Mine’ (a Kelly/Carmody cover), did make an appearance mid-set and was delivered by Sultan and Wilson with real rock prowess.

What Sultan does best, however, is infuse soul. In a lively regard, ‘Letter’ topped the list, leaving not a person still in the whole room, whilst the vocally immersing ‘Never Let You Down’ had more people focused on absorbing Sultan’s big notes than tapping their toes.

The end of the set was all-out chaos – aurally extravagant and visually awesome (as far as “the moves” are concerned, Sultan’s got em). A couple of older songs finally got their moment, with ‘Voices’ and the always delightful ‘Your Love is Like a Song’ ensuring people danced away the set’s finale.

But if those songs had raised the roof, it was the encore that blew it off. The massive sounds of ‘Cadillac and a Mustang’ really got feet moving and the final song, ‘Money’ took the energy even higher with hearty call and response between Sultan and the crowd.

The man knows how to leave a crowd wanting more – the energy in the room lingering as DJ Ken Eval continued the soulful soundtrack to the remaining dancers.

This might well have been the last “small scale” show Melbourne will see of Sultan for a while. Gone are the days of Evelyn gigs; he’ll be hitting the Forum Theatre in June – a big step indeed – so those who were at the Prince can count themselves pretty lucky.

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