Sarah Blasko

On St. Valentine’s Day eve, a muggy night, Australian songstress Sarah Blasko played the first of two sold out gigs at the Republic Bar. The night began with the local singer/songwriter Daimen who was seated with a guitar. He seemed uncomfortable and was given a subdued reaction by the crowd. To his credit, he did get a couple up to dance.

He was followed by the second support: two members of Blasko’s band: Ben Fletcher and Dave Hunt whose main gig is with The Devoted Few. Performing a set of songs from the band’s catalogue, Mr. Fletcher, the lead singer, firstly played solo with a guitar and was then was joined on stage by the keyboardist Mr. Hunt. Mr. Fletcher is a powerful performer with a strong voice and has presence but I would have liked to have seen more connection with the audience. He seemed to be singing with indifference as if he was the only one in the room. This may have been due to the lack of crowd attention as he certainly sang all of his material with intent.

The room filled to stifling capacity with people ranging from eighteen to sixty awaiting Ms. Blasko’s arrival. When she did appear, she seemed to go unnoticed and it was only after stepping to the microphone did she receive a welcome from the crowd. She started things off with the song 'The Garden’s End' from her latest release What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have. The set was a good mix of songs from both her albums. I was not prepared for her stage manner which was both enchanting and arresting. In perfomance Ms. Blasko is equal parts witch and innocent little girl as she struts and thrusts her shoulders around the stage. She further guides the mood by underlining pertinent lyrics with the gesticulations of a despot. Adding to this occasional authoritarian air was the high-collared black dress she wore, similar to the one worn on the cover of her debut album: The Overture and the Underscore. Theatrical as her style may be, every line is still delivered with passion and confidence and consequently is utterly captivating.

Between songs she was gracious and friendly, engaging the audience in frequent banter. She jokingly thanked the crowd for not requesting her cover of Cold Chisel’s 'Flame Trees' which has recently received a lot of airplay. She did, however, sing 'Don’t U Eva', the song which broke her onto the music scene and was a favourite with the audience. Her four piece band did not appear to showboat but instead focused intently on the quality of their delivery. Especially outstanding was the drummer Jeff De Araugo who played the varied moods of the different songs with excellent time and feel.

Overall it was a solid hour and a half set which did justice and added depth to her albums through a personal and entertaining performance.

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