Live Review: Kishi Bashi, Swimwear - Newtown Social Club

The Newtown Social Club is a comfortable little venue. It's resurrection from the ashes of the Sandringham Hotel is now complete and on this night, as they hosted two acts, it was evident how much this venue and location have changed.

With the punters sprawled on the floor in front of the small, low stage, Swimwear appeared. In fact Swimsuit consists of one man, Tim Derricourt, best known for his indie-rock band Dappled Cities. This side project sees Derricourt casually frolicking around the stage, either playing guitar or dancing in such an '80s camp fashion that you can't help but smile as your body involuntarily moves to the rhythm.

The sold out venue hustled up closer as the curtains opened to reveal the diminutive Japanese-American Kaoru Ishibashi, known as Kishi Bashi. This was to be a solo performance tonight as Ishibashi launched into In Fantasia from his recent second album, Lighght. The show was not without its faults; the exacting nature of a loop pedal, along with the long break in performing a solo show meant that some songs were apologetically restarted. This did not detract from an inspiring and fun performance, though.

Ishibashi's soaring vocals coupled with spine-tingling violin were the highlights of the evening. In fact, the loop pedals sometimes distracted from the quality of the musicianship and the delicious tones he was able to create from the violin, either by strumming, finger-picking or ferociously drawing with a bow. As around 15 people accepted Ishibashi's invitation to situate themselves on the small stage, he proceeded to enthral the audience with his music and his charismatic discourse between songs.

Due to the solo situation, a lot of new songs were not able to be performed during the show, however we were promised a return to our shores with a full band. Definitely not to be missed.