Lady Songbirds @ PaddingtonAle House (17/08/11)

Tue 23rd Aug, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Wednesday night at the Paddington ale house in the northern suburbs of Perth Is slowly becoming known as a great place to watch up and coming songwriters do their thing. Lady Songbirds is a roster of solo female songwriters. It’s unlikely that you will ever see the enormous room filled with music loving punters midweek, but you will discover blossoming talent spreading its petals, and lets face it, what else is there to do on a Wednesday night?

Sian Brown Inhabited the large stage first. Calmly strumming her black Ibanez-looking ukulele and singing about luxury, Fremantle and past love. Her voice danced with the mellow rhythm of her many acoustic instruments. Brown’s voice is powerful, an instrument in its own right. The songs are well constructed; often resembling happy Radiohead numbers with a tinge of country; imagine what Thom York would sound like if he was a female solo performer living in WA. Sian Brown finished her set beautifully with an operatic rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

The vibrant and quirky Minky G quickly followed. Minky G may resemble a Flight of the Conchords character, but her songs while highly entertaining, are far from satirical. Minky G delivered brilliant songwriting with well constructed guitar parts,her bubbly and energetic guitar and ukulele playing complement her. Fans of Frank Sinatra, Norah Jones and Jack Johnson should check her out.

Tiaryn took to the stage with keyboard in tow. She combined jazz, modern RnB and solid songwriting into a heartfelt performance. Second song into her set Tiaryn began using loop pedals to produce the sound Beyonce and Nelly Furtardo spent millions trying to pull off. She convincingly covered Britney Spears’ Toxic mid set. Her honest songwriting and refreshing outlook stood out against the artists that preceded her.

Lady Songbirds is a show worth writing home about. With any luck it will become a regular event. WA has a wealth of brilliant female talent just waiting to be discovered.