Just tell me when you would ever get to hear a Tom Waits cover ( Green Grass from his album Real Gone ), a Peter, Bjorn & John cover ( Young Folks ), a 1960’s classic French song originally sung by a supermodel (Francoise Hardy’s Tous Les Garconnes Et Les Filles) recited mostly in its native tongue, a discussion about dogs eating kangaroo ears, a dedicated song to a grandmother and then an ‘unrehearsed’ appearance by two members of The Drones (step right up Mike Noga and Dan Luscombe) showing up on stage feeling the love playing twin kazoo’s right next to a diminutive little American woman?
Dawn Landes is on fire as a one-girl musical unit tonight. Leaving her band back in the States, the former Kentucky broad and now current New Yorker slides between acoustic and electric guitars, one hell of a sweetened folk/country vocal range and a series of backing loops and pedals to support her ‘band’ sound. It was a real treat to listen to her play this evening as she warmed the room with a series of songs from her records, Dawn’s Music, Two Three Four (EP) and her most recent beauty, the indie-folk of Fireproof.
Landes slips into the sultry Scars and Honey Bee from Dawn’s Music and then massages the brains of the audience with fresh material such as I Don’t Need No Man, Twilight and Tired Of This Life before heading into Straight Lines territory from her delectable Two Three Four EP. Landes’ finger picking guitar style combines ridiculously well with her honey-rich voice and transports the room into another stratosphere – as if caught under some kind of weird spell. Yeah, she is that good!
Dawn Landes’ singing voice sits somewhere between Chan Marshall’s (Cat Power) eccentric indie appeal and that of Canadian roots/country star Kathleen Edwards’ style. “I heard you were all musicians. Somebody told me that and now I feel nervous,” expresses Landes as she addresses the crowd. She then straps on the electric guitar and cues in the backing tape before exploding into Kids In A Play and delivering one of the many highlights of the performance. “Oh man I missed the drums cue!” squeals Landes as the crowd embraces her flawed qualities.
Finishing off with Bodyguard and the aptly titled Goodnight Lover, Melbourne waves goodbye to a genuine artist who can make your hair stand up on the back of your neck and give you a lump in the throat every time. The melody, the rhythm and that folk inspired swagger that Landes puts out to the universe can get the eyes to well up and the heart to warm in an instant, and we all thank her for gracing us with her magnetic presence on this enchanted eve.
