Live Review: Missy Higgins, Gordi

Gordi was a great choice of tour support for Missy Higgins' national tour, and she certainly blew the crowd away at the Enmore Theatre gig.

Opening with Long Way, Gordi (aka Sophie Payten) had the growing crowd silent and in awe of her huge, haunting vocals as she stood solo with just an acoustic guitar. A three-piece band — made up of a drummer, pianist and saxophonist/guitarist — joined her from the second track, keeping the crowd more than entertained for the next 40 minutes. Set highlights included Heaven I Know and Can We Work It Out, as well as a cover of Paul Kelly's When I First Met Your Ma.

The crowd was very excited for Missy Higgins, with a huge cheer filling the room as she walked out on stage, solo. She sat at the piano and launched into All For Believing, with all going well until she realised about a minute in that she had gotten the words confused, to which she laughed and told the crowd it would be the first of many mistakes they'll hear for the night, later putting it down to "baby brain". 

Higgins' five-piece band walked out and joined her for 49 Candles, Don't Ever and Ten Days, the last of which saw a small wardrobe malfunction occur with Higgins' earring breaking and her comically asking her guitar tech, "Are you as good at fixing earrings as you are guitars, Casey?"

She pressed through the set, sharing tracks off her latest album, Solastalgia, including Starting Again, Red Moon and the very catchy Futon Couch, which she dedicated to her husband who was in attendance.

Song For Sammy was a touching, unreleased track, sung with just a ukulele as accompaniment, a tribute to Higgins' son and parenthood. Soon after, she returned to the piano and re-introduced Gordi, who shared vocal duties for The Sound Of White.

The full band returned for Everyone's Waiting, How Was I To Know - a request from Higgins' sister - and Don't Look Down. The crowd was certainly pleased with The Special Two, singing along from the start. Warm Whispers provided an extended jam, as Higgins' vocals easily filled the room.

Scar and Steer were the perfect end to the evening, with the crowd very happily joining in on vocals. Finishing to a standing ovation, it's clear that Higgins has cemented her place as an Aussie treasure and very rightly so.