Proud Adelaide band The Audreys returned home on their national When The Flood Comes Tour to an almost full Her Majesty’s Theatre. Showing their professionalism and growth since the slow word-of-mouth growth of their debut album Between Last Night and Us; this national 17 date tour and ARIA chart success show the band moving from strength to strength.
J. Walker from Machine Translations warmed up the crowd with a 45 minute solo set filled with tunes from the Machine Translations back catalogue as well as songs from the new album Seven Seven. It was just J. Walker, a guitar and his voice, yet he captivated the audience from start to finish with the soothing acoustic heartfelt melodies. Highlights of his set included Amnesia, Not My Fault and popular She Wears a Mask. The music was the main focus for the entire set with only one change from acoustic to electric guitar, but it sounded like there could have been a trio up there, all credit to the talent of this frontman.
The Audreys’ set started with Chelsea Blues and moved seamlessly into old favourite Banjo & Violin. The 5 piece proud Adelaidians clearly were glowing to be playing at home once again. The crowd was polite and older in comparison to many other gigs at venues like the Gov as Taasha said; it feels like a grown up show and my Mum is glad to be able to sit down at a gig for once. As always (this was my third time seeing them) their love of music and performing is infectious. Taasha Coates radiates as the lead singer expressing the lyrics and musicality of the songs through her distinctive dance style. Referring to When The Flood Comes as the difficult 2nd album, they obviously have nothing to worry about due to the overwhelming success of the follow-up album.
The biggest growth in their blues/roots/country music was shown through the rock edge added to most of their tracks. Toby Lang’s thumping bass drum, Mickey G’s lap steel solos and Tristan Goodall on electric guitar; took tracks like Lay Me Down and Oh Honey to a whole new level. Title track When The Flood Comes was a highlight featuring Tristan’s eerie space sounds on his guitar, which Mickey G. jokingly referred to as “entering the mothership”. This playful joking was also present when Taasha stopped You & Steve McQueen so Tristan could tune his “fricken banjo”, to laughs and cheers from the audience.
The hometown atmosphere carried throughout the entire set where some special rare songs and two encores featured. The well-known cover of INXS’s Don’t Change and a rare acoustic version of Nancy Sinatra classic Bang Bang were special inclusions in the Adelaide set.
At the end of the second encore, all five members huddled around a radio mic to give a breathtaking acoustic performance of Lonesome Valley; a track that didn’t quite make it onto the second album. A plucking, light sound came from Mickey G on violin, Taasha & drummer Toby on ukeleles, Lyndon on double bass and Tristan on banjo. This moment was so emotional and personal showing the strong friendships in the group and showing how far this band has come from their humble beginnings in smaller Adelaide venues.
