Angie Hart
» Christchurch Quake Relief Concert - March 25, 2011
» Angie Hart - Jade Monkey, SA - November 20, 2009
» Angie Hart - Toff in Town, The, VIC - May 5, 2009
» Angie Hart - Republic Bar and Cafe, Tas - November 26, 2009
» Angie Hart - November 27, 2009
» British India - October 27, 2007
A wide cross-section of eager punters line the bar and recline in the Barcelona chairs around the periphery of the ordinarily dancey Hotel New York. There are thirty people quietly present for possibly the best show this writer has ever seen.
Fabulous Hobartian acousti-rocker Hayley Couper opened the night with twelve gutsy originals. The woman has got a hell of a voice and knows her guitar like a friend. Nodding heads and approving glances all round. Brilliant. Seek her out.
After a short break, and with the house music still up, Angie Hart appears with an accompanying guitarist. Unsurprisingly, the dance floor is unoccupied for such a show, and so the petite singer is five metres from her audience. Angie promises we will bridge the distance and connect somehow, “maybe on a soul level or something.”
She begins with There’s Nothing Wrong With You, the opening track from Eat My Shadow. It’s as if she’s singing it for us, not just to us. We’re OK. You can almost hear the audience sigh.
Two more new songs follow, including the new single, Simple, before the vacant space in front of the stage becomes too much for Angie. “I’m going to try something,” she says, picking up the microphone. “This will probably do something bad for the sound guy.” She tip-toes out into the middle of the dance floor and adjusts her shirt in the ambient light as the audience laughs and applauds. It seems our “soul level” connection is already taking place.
Angie performs two more songs from the album, Funny Guy and I Lead When We Dance before sitting down cross-legged to introduce what she says is “a sinister song.” When You Sleep is brief - less than two minutes - and beautiful in its simplicity: “I’m working so hard / to understand myself / I can’t begin to know you / I wish I was the girl behind your REM. / Every day you look at me and tell me that I am.” Then comes the first Frente! hit for the night, Labour of Love, followed by two tunes from her 2007 solo debut, Grounded Bird.
The woman is so beautiful and so within reach. When she chokes on one of the high notes she simply says “Oops, there it is” and keeps going. During I’m Afraid of Fridays the guitarist’s instrument suddenly drops out. While the guitar is inspected, Angie gives us a shy account of her life story, complete with polite audience interjections and requests. Five minutes later, guitarist re-armed, the two pick up where they left off at the second chorus.
“We said we’d play that one if someone requested it,” Angie says, answering a callout from the back. “This is the last show on the tour and you’re the first one to ask for it. We haven’t even rehearsed it!” It’s the loudest, most participatory version of Accidentally Kelly Street you could imagine. For the encore, she brings out Ordinary People and Bizarre Love Triangle. “You’re going to have to sing along really loud.” And we do. When the house lights come on, we are a room full of friends, connected “at a soul level.” Amazing.
