The thought of not seeing a gig this week sent shivers down one’s spine, Lior was playing at the ANU so it was off to the Bar. Sometimes when you’re around people all day you just want to escape; and music, as it is for many people, is my escape, even if I go by myself.
Turning up at the Uni Bar about half way through Ashleigh Mannix’s set I was pleasantly surprised by her talents with both voice and guitar. At 19, Mannix shows signs of promise as a performer, her song writing however is still at an immature stage. At times her stage performance became tedious as she explained each of her songs. She would have been best served keeping the between song banter to every second or third song.
After a slight freak out a mate tapped me on the shoulder, dragged me further into the crowd and Lior hit the stage. Lior surprised me, I had this perception that roots artists were all quite serious people, Lior wasn’t, he spent his set cracking jokes and telling self-deprecating stories.
Lior played a really enjoyable set. Whilst his debut Autumn Flow had received a J Award nomination, it was surprising to hear just how much influence artists like Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake had in his music. Playing an acoustic guitar for most of the night, he alternated between performing sitting down and standing up for the duration of the set. Towards the end of the set Lior played some more reggae influenced material, it was unfortunate that more of the material didn’t have the great beat and rhythm of this stuff, as it really promoted the party atmosphere within the crowd.
On the last song of the set Lior put out the call to the audience for a girl with rhythm, for a song that was recorded with multiple overdubs. The first girl selected, who was standing down the front bailed out when she realised she’d have to get up on stage and actually do something. The second girl pulled up on stage was standing near me with her friends; her name was Lucy. Lucy appeared to actually be able to play the drums, and with the encouragement of her friends, did a really great job.
Stand out songs from the evenings set were ‘This Old Love’, ‘Bedouin Song’, ‘Autumn Flow’ and ‘Diago and the Village Girl’ from Lior’s live album Doorways of my Mind. All in all when the set was over and done at 11:00pm I’d had a great time and really enjoyed myself.
PS Lucy if your out there reading this drop me a line. :-)
