Live
Stella Donnelly + Tobey
The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
August 24 2018
Words/Pictures: Steve Willcox
I’ve been looking forward to Australian singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly’s Brighton show since catching her at this year's Great Escape Festival where she proceeded to blow the seagulls off the beach with her storming outside set on the Dr Martens stage. It’s also a bank holiday weekend, so Stella's return to Brighton is a double bonus.
When I arrive it's a surprise to find only a solo amp on stage and a few guitars, having erroneously assumed she was touring with a band. Not that it makes it any less of a pleasure to see this highly enjoyable performer, of course. Fellow Oz gal Tobey opens the evening. This is the lo-fi solo project of singer/songwriter and guitarist Anna Davidson of Brisbane's Major Leagues, and despite not being at all well she informs those gathered, gamely battles her way through. with about 30 people in eager anticipation and starts off her set with ‘Said I Would Be Good’.
You can tell when she sings there’s a vulnerability in her voice with lyrics of pain and lost friends; her ability to set this to music is impressive, and, sometimes, despite the subject matter, I found myself tapping my feet in time with the music. ‘Guitar Song’ is a highlight, a song which starts off slow, but then builds to a good rhythm as she tells of missing someone. The round of applause she receives at its close shows she has obviously captured this Brighton crowd's heart.
Stella Donnelly is one of Australia’s leading new talents in the folk-rock field, and as she gets straight down to business with her headline set, opening with ‘Grey’, about trying please others and losing yourself in the process, it's easy to see why she has received such unequivocal praise - both home, and away. The crowd has now swollen in size, crammed into the humid space to catch the razor sharp wit and sardonic turn of lyrical phrase from this young woman to describe the world today. Along with her talent for songwriting, her voice sweetly soars and cuts through the lyrics like an swearing angel with a machete.
‘Boys Will Be Boys’ a song about female sexual assault, but somehow she brings it right into the audience, so they can feel her friend's pain on how others act when it happens. Two new songs are introduced to the party tonight in the form of ‘Beware of the Dogs’ and ‘Allergies’, both making their live debut here; the latter revolving around being in a relationship and getting sick of him to the point of becoming 'allergic'.
"He said I was a hipster because I’ve got a fringe / and I read books" she shares on the self-depricating ‘Should Have Stayed At Home’, a song detailing disastrous Tinder dates, and which delightfully ends on the line, “shoulda swiped left”. While on 'Mechanical Bull' she vents her scorn on the sexistshe was harassed by when working at a bar. “I’m gonna throw you all off me like a mechanical bull / and you’ll be sorry,” she threatens. The whimsical pop of 'Mean To Me’ from last year's debut EP, 'Thrush Metal' (re-reissued this June through Secretly Canadian), closes the set to the biggest round of applause and cheers I can ever remember at this venue, and after it she really had no choice but to give the crowd a final parting gift of an encore. Basement Jaxx’s ‘Goodnight’ came expertly delivered, and she’s right, it was - a very good night.
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