An evening of enchanting humour and beautiful song was what Adelaidians received from celebrated singer songwriter Clare Bowditch tonight. Leaving her band, The Feeding Set back home, Clare hit Adelaide on her solo Winter Secrets tour but before the night was through few secrets would be left as Clare’s stories and emotional songs gave you warm glimpses into who she is and the life she leads. Tonight’s show made us feel like we had all been invited over to her place for dinner rather than coming to watch her perform.
Cheekily poking her head out of the band room Clare entered the stage with all the grace of a seasoned professional but with the playfulness of a child. Introducing us early on to her much loved additional band member Casio 45, the beat up, rusting, born again synthesizer would set the scene for many quirky moments for tonight’s refreshingly honest and sincere performance.
Kicking off with a sweet and sexy version of When The Lights Went Down then straight into Divorcee By 23, each song was intercepted by a short story sometimes relating to the song, other times the subject was just what Clare decided she wanted to chat about in that moment. Telling the eager audience that The Moon Looked On was written about an Adelaide skyline and that Lips Like Oranges was about an ill-fated tour to Mexico’s Corona factory was met by jovial laughing throughout the overcrowded sellout Jive. Forgetting the lyrics to the first verse of Lips Like Oranges, Clare didn’t let it get the better of her, instead she called on an audience member to join her and her acoustic guitar on stage for a some assistance. Angela the lucky punter did a great job, (clearly thinking all her Christmas’s had come at once) she guided Clare through her own song much to Clare’s amusement. It wasn’t long before everyone was involved in the Sing-along.
As part of this tour Clare enabled local musicians to apply to play with her on stage, deciding that the talent in Adelaide was far too high she chose three musicians to help her out. Bridget (violin), Michael (mouth piano) and Simon (guitar) contributed to a fun version of The Other Hand.
Without the back up of The Feeding Set Clare improvised using loop pedals and her beloved Casio 45 featured predominantly but you couldn’t help but smile during the bewitching rendition of Between the Tea and Toast when Clare played a ceramic teapot, one of many inanimate objects that she bought to life. For a solo tour Miss Bowditch was surrounded by friends. Hot Little Hands and The Feeding Set member Tim Harvey repeatedly joined Clare on stage and the jokes continued to flow freely, saying that I Thought You Were God made her think about Guy Sebastian, but it was Tim’s sublime harmonies bought a new level to each song he featured on.
Highlights included the bluesy version of You Look So Good, a cover of Kev Carmody’s From Little Things Big Things Grow and the all out audience sing-along of On This Side.
Interestingly tonight was more an evening of good chats than music, with the set list consisting of perhaps only 10 songs (from across Clare’s albums) performed during the hour and a half set.
The moon may have been looking on but Clare left us jumping over the moon with tonight’s gorgeous and endearing performance and like the much loved Casio 45, the memory of tonight will be with us for a long time.
