Hot on the heels of winning the International Songwriting Competition Grand Prize for Caught In The Crowd, a full HiFi Bar joined Kate Miller-Heidke as she embarked on a tour to promote the lyrically powerful song.

As we filled the ballroom, everyone paused to ponder what on earth a puppet show style curtain was doing perched front center stage. A comical voice-over invited us to ‘turn off your mobile phones, or better yet leave them on, and take that call in the middle of the song’. Before we could finish laughing the perplexing puppet show curtains began to rise to reveal Mikki Ross. Dressed in English period clothing behind a keyboard, performing a grand almost musical theatre style rendition of Meet The Flintstones. This was enough to make even the most stubborn of patrons split their sides. Performing to a backing track, it’s obvious that the music is only part of the Mikki Ross experience. As the curtains fell once again, he disappeared from view only to return behind drew curtains shackled as if a puppet. Ross delved into a soft ballad which broke down into a solid beatfull bridge, in which Mikki became controlled by the music as if it was the magical puppet master from above. When the song finished be fell limp into his pupppetry restraints and the curtains fell once again.

We stared in a confused yet curious awe as Mikki Ross came out infront of the curtain to deliver a moving soulful serenade. His performance was so captivating I’m sure I was not the only one who fell away from reality and thought they were in a theatre. Mikki transformed his curtain once again, and took centre stage with a dance routine I can safely assume no one saw coming. Needless to say by now he had won over a small gaggle of girls, who had formed a mosh infront of the stage, if not everyone in the room. Truely I’ve rarely seen an audience so excited an enthralled by an opening act. If anyone could set the mood for a night of Kate Miller-Heidke its her friend Mikki Ross in his first live Melbourne show and definitely not his last.

Unfortunately, and I know I not alone on this judging by the comments overhead when leaving. End Of Fashion through no real fault of their own took the fun, comical and kooky vibe setup by Mikki Ross and trampled it with rock. It’s not that they were bad. On the contrary after a their mix was fixed (it was a horrendous unintelligible, mush of sound) they delighted fans to probably their most widely known hit Oh Yeah. The whole ballroom joined in each time those words were uttered to deliver an amazing harmony. The Perth four-piece rocked it out for a good set with Down Or Down and Force Of Habit, however they just didn’t suit the aura of the night.

Dressed in a pink vintage styled dress, blue hi-top Converses, topped off with her trademark headpiece, Kate Miller-Heidke sits down at her keyboard in a spotlight of pure white. We fell silent as her and Nicole Brophy (acoustic guitar) opened what was destined to be an amazing set with Out And In. The rest of her band Keir Nuttall (electric guitar), Ben McCarthy (bass) and Steve Pope (drums) took to the stage for Little Adam.Before long we were all treated to the vocal prowess that the opera-trained Miller-Heidke is so well known for as she broke into vocal opera solos. We couldn’t get enough of them though.

A chorus of synchronised head rocking from the band brought some laughter in I Like Your Better When You’re Not Around. ‘One, two, four, three!’ Shouted Kate as she counted her band into the delightfully dynamic Mama. Removing the microphone from the shackles of its stand, Kate slows down for a moment serenade us with Space They Cannot Touch. Moving back to the keyboard Kate told us how the next song Dreams was ‘about someone who I had a massive on, but didn’t have a crush on me’. In For The Hundredth Time McCarthy made his live piano debut.

What followed next was something that when it happens truly makes live gigs worthwhile. Kate treated us to a song she had only written ‘the day before last’. Are You Kidding Me? (working title) is about an ex who tries to become her friend, on Facebook. Needless to say with lyrics like ‘And you want to be my friend on Facebook? Are you fucking kidding me?!’ and ‘I don’t give a shit what your stripper name is’, it was an instant crowd favourite. Massive applause and cheer greeted each of the aforementioned lines.

Kate’s dynamic stage presence was matched by her band in pop classics Gods Gift To Women, Words and Voice. At one point she was conducting her band with her arms, to terrific comedic effect. They are beyond doubt a tight group, stopping and starting at her every whim. In whats been known to happen at many of her live gigs, Kate and her band treated us to a cover of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice. I almost didn’t recognise it through the stylings of Kate Miller-Heidke, that was until the chorus when the entire room joined in. There’s something about that song, it just commands you to sing.

To close the set, she aptly finished with Caught In The Crowd which brought about a stupendous cheer for an encore. An encore that could only mean Can’t Shake It. The tremendously bouncy song finished the set on a high. However pandemonium almost occurred when she announced thst she would be at the merch table, which was right next to the only exit. It was quite a bottleneck, and whilst it didn’t ruin the night I dare say the HiFi Bar wont let that happen again.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE