Little Birdy, Red Riders, AbbeFuzz @ ANU Bar (03/11/2006)

Thu 9th Nov, 2006 in Gig Reviews

It takes a lot of guts, practice and self-confidence for a soloist to openfor a big act like Little Birdy and to stand there so boldly as Abbe Fuzzdid, commanding the ANU stage on Friday the 3rd of November. You could tellshe was inspired by the old blues legends and – in search for her own style- infused her bluesy, dusty but clear voice with a rocking acoustic guitar.For me, she was a bit lacking in her song-writing skills and the dynamics ofher performance, but it worked as an opening act.

Next came The Red Riders, whose music and beats must havebeen felt through the whole uni. They really got the crowd pumping and someof their songs seemed to be well known by those pushing to get to the front.I must admit that this isn’t generally the type of music I go see live – butthey defiantly got my feet tapping whether I wanted or not. They put on agood live set and had plenty of stage presence, but I felt there wassomething a bit lacking in their music, that for me didn’t put them farenough apart from other bands in their genre. At times, they lost myattention, as their musical and vocal hooks got a bit lost in the noise.

After having had to cancel their concert in Canberra twice, the anticipationof the crowd had noticeably built up. A welcome cheer from Canberra fans asthe lights came on and Little Birdy appeared.

Katy danced, jumped and shook her hair wildly around the stage in one redand one white high heel – which I personally found was very impressive, butat times maybe a little too cocky and self-indulgent. But she is after all apretty cool rock-chick and her jaw-dropping vocals that were perfect onevery note made up 10-fold for this and the crowd loved her unconditionally.

Not having heard their new album Hollywood, I went in with an open mindafter reading that their new direction was more electronic. But I waspleasantly delighted that the new sound actually worked well with Katy’sinspiring vocal leaps and bounds. You could tell that the crowd felt pleasedwith a great mix of old and new tracks played live, in excellent comparisonto their recorded albums, with a few extra flavours thrown in here andthere. There was such love that filled the venue when everyone sang along totheir better-known tracks such as “Message to god”, “This is a love song”and “Relapse”.