Live Review: Josh T. Perason, Tulane

Tulane were a strange choice of support act with their brand of soulful acoustic, jazz-tinged folk quite the contrast to the headliners’ stark and brooding primitivism. Still, the duo showed they have talent as players and in particular Nikki Malvar’s voice was a warm and emotive instrument that brought to mind Bic Runga. 

Josh T. Pearson used to conjure up fire and brimstone dramatics with his band Lift To Experience in the early 2000s but since then he’s retreated into a solo career with one album and a reputation for intense and drawn-out live performances of his songs. With the audience sprawled and seated across the venue floor Pearson lightened the atmosphere with some observations about his first visit to Australia, foot massages and those “hippies in Melbourne” before taking the audience on a long journey through a mere five songs across the following 80 minutes. Highlights Sweetheart, I Ain’t Your Christ and Country Dumb travelled from fast, feathery finger-picked notes to intense flurries of strummed strings as he pondered the heart-wrenching details of a doomed relationship. If Pearson’s songs are long and heavy-going on record, they’re stretched and explored even more on stage. At times he stepped back from the mic, still singing and drawing the attentive and silent audience even deeper into his biblically-inspired despair. Religion is a theme in his work and that extended to the closing cover of the gospel song, Will The Circle Be Unbroken, and the news that he’s planning to record a whole album of such songs. The absolute hypnotic focus of the audience, doomed beauty of Pearson’s songs and his hilarious banter made for an evening of music that felt special, intimate and strangely uplifting.