Woden Southern Cross Club’s ‘Top of the Cross’ was the unlikely venue for Mia Dyson’s only Canberra show before she heads abroad, highlighting Canberra’s need for more live music venues.

Don’t get me wrong, the ‘Top of the Cross’ wasn’t that bad, the service was second to none and the drinks were cheap but the – œsit-down feel’ of it all was a little awkward. Making my way over to my reserved seats I had to awkwardly manoeuvre my way through all the tables and chairs to a table with a small sign with my surname on it. If you expected to get tickets at the door, you weren’t guaranteed a seat – you just had to find a space up against a wall to make sure you weren’t in anyone’s way. The majority of the crowd looked to be over 40, maybe the club’s strict dress standards and the trip out to Woden put the youngin’s off.

After spending some time with sound checks and the like, Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea emerged. For the tour The Endless Sea lineup had changed, with Melbourne’s own folk songstress Laura Jean on the mini grand and back up vocals as well as a few other friends (would be interesting to know if they are permanent fixtures?). One of those is Biddy Connor on viola, musical and vocals, who also fronts Sailor Days and plays in Laura Jean’s Eden Land band. Opening with new song Mother’s Desk Jen tells the crowd she’s spent the last two years living in Auckland looking after her elderly parents and writing her new album Hidden Hands which is due sometime in the next few months. Followed by old crowd favourite Rain from her critically acclaimed debut Dead Wood Falls, she also played current single and the title track from her new album.

Live, the upbeat track Hidden Hands showcases the powerful voice Jen normally keeps hidden under all her folky goodness. Closing with Grant Lee Buffalo’s Fuzzy, Jen later mans the merch stand and personally signs her limited edition three track tour EP, only 200 were made and I got one of them!

Mia Dyson and her electric guitar emerged on the stage around 10 pm, firstly with the multi-talented blues musician Liz Stringer. She basically played as soon as she plugged herself in and after Jen Cloher’s long set up, this caught the crowd by surprise with most running back to their seats to catch the first song. If you weren’t a big fan of Mia’s before, see her live and you’ll truly be able to appreciate her distinctively raw voice in full force. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G is all I can say. Compared to the opening band, Mia and her outfit turn up the volume and I wonder how the all the weddings, christenings and other ho-downs are coping next door in the function rooms?!

Followed by No Other from 2005 ARIA award winning album Parking Lots and new track Struck Down By The Road, Mia hops on the piano for a few songs admitting it’s the first real piano she’s played all tour other than that “It’s been a Casio!”, later Laura Jean joins in on piano for a few songs. On stage, Mia sings most of her songs with her eyes closed, she looks tiny behind her big white electric and you can see the band feeding off her as she does her own thing. Unfortunately the sit-down setup meant the crowd were limited to bopping in their seats, but eventually Never Felt Young and People Will Turn On You from newest album Struck Down got a few fans up, but they were forced to dance in a dark corner due to limited floor space.

Closing with You and Me, Mia and band graciously leave the stage only to return after a little persuasion. “Would you like some more? Because we have more!” she says. Mia played a few more songs including one based on Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken. Ironically there’s no turning back for Mia, who’ll soon be off to take on the U.S. I’m sure she’ll do Australia proud.