Live Review: Bonjah, Anna O, Riley Pearce

The night kicked off with solo artist Riley Pearce beginning with a few chilled-out songs and working his way through some toe-tappers, mainly playing songs from his recent EP, We Are Fools. His sound can be compared with that of Vance Joy and Passenger and it was unfortunate that he was the first act of the night because his lyrics were heartfelt and definitely relatable for all us mere mortals.

Next up was Anna O, who, for a tiny girl, had some amazing vocals that blew the audience away. During most of her set there were two munted girls dancing around the whole venue and falling over every five seconds. Thankfully Anna claimed them as her “back-up dancers”. She covered Jessie Ware’s Night Light and Avicii/Audra Mae’s Addicted To You. Safe to say her cover of Addicted To You trumped the original due to her sultry, seductive voice. She was frank with her music, dissing a song she just sang because it had a “repetitive nature” and “cheese”. This girl is definitely going to be going places.

As soon as Bonjah took the stage they began rocking, amps shaking. The lead singer, Glenn Mossop, was rocking a fedora and he’s probably in the one percentile of people who can actually rock those hats. They were here for the promotion of their latest LP, Beautiful Wild, playing songs such as Honey, Big City Lights and Other Side. Their up-tempo songs caused the place to create many dance circles and a few head-bangers here and there. Throughout their whole set no one could stand still, the band’s infused indie rock and folk stirring the house. Mossop was chatting with the audience and other band members during the songs, making it a bit more personal. They played a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, played so flawlessly it seemed like their own until the familiar chorus was sung. As their set continued they played some of their old songs from past albums and towards the end of their set they played their triple j Like A Version version of Lorde’s Royals. These dudes from NZ sure know how to have a good time.