Live Review: Kate Miller-Heike, Ryan Keen

The warm wooden tones of the Chatswood Concourse set the perfect scene for some acoustic perfection on a Friday night – kicking off with Ryan Keen, who with just a guitar and some bass pads at his feet is an incredibly talented one-man band. With his warm, breathy voice and earnest lyrics it’s easy to compare him to Ed Sheeran – who he has supported – but Keen is in another class with the way he turns his guitar into a percussion instrument, effortlessly flicking rhythms in between strums and interspersing his set with charming banter with equal ease.

He’s warmed a polite room for Kate Miller-Heidke, she of a very unique brand of playful pop influenced by her opera background. Some might find her quirky, sassy style an acquired taste but live she’s mastered an irresistible mix of talent and charisma. By her own admission her outfit, a white mesh two-piece dotted with gold spots, made her look like “a shuttlecock” and she cheekily teases her bandmates including husband, guitarist and co-writer Keir Nuttall throughout the set.

Every song is a skilfully woven story, told bullshit-free so that all can relate and paint a picture in their mind. They can be humorous – including Are You Fucking Kidding Me, which covers that beautiful modern dilemma of an unwanted Facebook friend request, and plods along playfully before that voice suddenly hits full flight, flooring everyone with an unexpected 20-second, glass-shattering note. They can be full of tremulous energy and excitement, as with her new track O Vertigo! from her new album of the same name.

They can be powerful and cutting, such as the assertive Words – on which Nuttall provided a blistering solo while Miller-Heidke asks, “Do you think my personality’s written in stone? Are you positively certain that you know what you’ve been shown?”  – and they can be touchingly romantic, as with Last Day On Earth, which Miller-Heidke performed last on a request from Twitter. The requester shrieked from the audience, beside herself. The set also weaved in tongue-in-cheek covers given brilliant makeovers, from Aussie rapper Drapht to Miley Cyrus with a real chemistry amongst the band. You cannot pigeonhole Kate Miller-Heidke, but it’s impossible not to be captivated by her.