It was a sold out show at the Corner Hotel, which meant that navigation within the venue walls was a challenge. Audience members of all different ages and backgrounds were ready for a memorable evening of live music.
Nat Dunn opened the night with herself and guitarist Chris Sheehy playing a fusion of blues, indie folk. Dunn has an incredible vocal range similar to Norah Jones. Sheehy is a talented guitarist, accentuating Dunn’s voice through fast finger-picking and soloing; Dunn gracefully knew when to take a step back and let her band mate own the spotlight.
Perhaps the most Norah Jones-inspired tune was ‘Let Me Down Easy’ – a more solemn, downtrodden piece that greatly demonstrated Dunn’s incredible musical range.
She was worshipped by the crowd and expressed her gratitude throughout the set. “I was shitting my pants to be honest with you,” she joked with the audience, who promptly responded with laughter. The bassist and drummer from Busby Marou’s backing band joined Dunn and Sheehy for the last two songs, adding an extra dimension to an already well-established sound.
Melbourne local Harry Hookey was up next. His backing band followed him on stage that included his brother Jack, who was so proudly introduced by Hookey himself. They played folk rock that contrasted nicely with Dunn’s previous set – yet Hookey and his band were arguably more upbeat. The young musician surely won over a few new audience members with his no-nonsense approach to his music and the stories he shared between songs.
A sea of people gathered around the stage in anticipation for the headlining act before the curtains opened to colossal applause. Frontman Thomas Busby introduced the group to seemingly endless acclamation that only doubled with the passing of each song.
At the mere mention of their album Farewell Fitzroy, the room echoed in applause. There was a sense of mutual admiration between band and crowd, yet they performed without appealing too ostentatious or above their own merits.
It was the down-to-earth nature of the group that came off as particularly charming throughout the hour-long set. Jeremy Marou stole most of the audience’s attention with his incredible guitar playing techniques; acoustic fingerpicking and ukulele soloing were frequent without ever feeling tired or overused. A guest appearance from Dunn was a pleasant surprise to the punters who arrived early, lending her vocals to some of the later songs.
The band closed the night with the fan favourite, ‘Underlying Message’. While it was an appropriate choice for the finale, it also came off as a little self-indulgent, feigning closure on more than one occasion. The same could be said for parts of the performance itself. The band returned for an encore after some applause and then a finale, which Busby described as a “campfire jam”.
The crowd dispersed to give the musicians, including Dunn and Hookey, enough room to all gather and perform in the middle of the floor. Busby and the others ushered a sense of silence among the crowd as they ended the night with an unplugged jam. While it was hard to hear at times, the musicians made up for this by oozing a huge sense of community inside the venue, with most of the audience relaying the words right back to the centre of the room. It was an unconventional, yet strangely fitting end to the long night.
