Liz Stringer @ The ThornburyTheatre, Melbourne(16/04/2010)

Mon 19th Apr, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Walking into the Thornbury Theatre on Friday the 16th of April, or any night for that matter, one could be forgiven for thinking they’d stepped into a year 12 formal or a wedding reception. The large space, complete with gilded gold designs on the walls and ceiling was crammed with round tables, most of them full of eager punters eagerly awaiting the musical stylings of Liz Stringer.

Launching her new album (number three in five years – An impressive feat indeed), Tides of Time, Stringer appeared on stage casually and confidently. It was obvious that more than a few people in the audience knew her and that she knew quite a few of them, with shout outs and acknowledgements thrown around the entire night. Accompanied by her band comprised of drummer Adam May and bassist Tim Keegan, Stringer was also joined for several numbers by guitarists/back up vocalists Matt Walker and Jordie Lane. The onstage banter was ripe with humour and self deprecation all night with the musicians clearly enjoying themselves and there for a good time and Stringer’s musings between songs adding much information and humour to the night (topics ranging from her defending of Billy Joel’s music, offering the audience money if they can dance to a sombre tune and many deeper insights to her craft and song writing talents).

And Stringer has talent. From her guitar/banjo skills to her husky/mellow voice which is more than captivating, especially when she lets loose (which when it happened had the audience on the edge of their seats). Her ability to grab the audience’s attention and clutch it until the end of a song is nothing short of incredible. Stringer’s song writing ability is also superb, with her acoustic charged blues/country style songs telling intimate tales of her life and of others she has crossed – Although as Stringer herself pointed out, she has a bit of an obsession with the ocean and water imagery – Not that this is a bad thing!

Although the night was to launch her new CD, the setlist contained many songs from her previous albums with highlights including Featherweight -a melancholy song that had the entire audience in stunned silence at the lyrics, It’s A Long Way Down – a catchy, foot tapping song that displayed Stringer’s fine story telling skills, Get Myself Together – with a sparse low key beginning into a heavy, grungy blues ending, and Children – an extremely sad song containing the saddest lyrics of the night (“I miss you more when you’re here than when you’re away”) and accompanied by album mixer Simon Bailey on an extremely effective tremolo bass.

Other songs included the jangly country pop of You Always Wanted A Little More, First Frost – a song about the hard life farmers have, the captivating Love I Found A Flood with its jarring chorus and The Road’s Inglorious End – a song where the band clearly were enjoying themselves, with lots of smiles and knowing nods going on between the troupe.

All in all, a wonderful night of entertainment with many of the audience entranced by Stringer’s lyrics and voice, her blues/country songs are simply superb and one could say she is one of Australia’s hidden talents.