Lisa Mitchell

Looking like a modern day Melanie Safka with long auburn hair and ‘red wine lips,’ Lisa Mitchell floats onto the stage at Hobart’s Wrest Point Showroom for the final performance of her Oh! Hark! Tour.

Dressed in a brown autumnal frock she greets the audience shyly and takes her place at the keyboard. The electronic chimes of a music box fill the room as Lisa Mitchell sweetly sings the opening lines of ‘Oh Nostalgia.’ Evoking the slick musical stagecraft of the sixties, Mitchell’s backing singers are plunged in and out of spotlights as they echo her words.

Showcasing songs from her Australian Music Prize winning debut album Wonder, Mitchell and her band deliver a set brimming with joy, warmth and a whole lot of character. Traversing genres of folk, pop and rock, Mitchell keeps us on our toes with fresh, innovative tunes that are bound by her whimsical innocence and husky child voice. At 20, Mitchell knows her niche; recalling the ethereal qualities of Coco Rosie and Joanna Newsom.

Throughout the evening Mitchell giggles softly as she murmurs introductions for each song (which deviate little from their studio recordings.) When introducing the wonderfully upbeat ‘Stevie,’ Mitchell confesses it to be about her ‘ex-best friend from primary school,’ admitting that ‘it’s a bit awkward ‘cos she facebooked me the other day.’ Prior to launching into ‘Coin Laundry,’ Mitchell pleads with us to refrain from tossing our dollar coins her way. ‘I find it really scary!’ She laughs, yet somehow $1.50 still makes it onto the stage.

Later, drifting back over to the keyboard for the pensive, melancholic ‘Love Letter,’ Lisa Mitchell truly exhibits her musical and song-writing prowess: ‘I’d like a flat white, a day of pale skies and a real kiss / inside an old house by the seaside / you can take off my blouse.’

Like a marionette cut from her strings, Lisa Mitchell has well and truly shaken off her Australian Idol shackles.

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