Live Review: Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher
Missy Higgins' fans sure are a punctual bunch, forming a line long enough to reach back to St Paul's Terrace before doors are even open. And a good thing that is, as tonight's support Butterfly Boucher deserves to play to a full room. Having recently released an excellent third self-titled record, Boucher shows off stripped-back versions by variously making use of a backing band shared with Higgins. With knowledge of the album, it's difficult not to miss the layers of instrument and vocal embellishments, though the sass and confidence of Boucher's delivery makes her hard to knock. As a close friend, co-writer and producer of Higgins' comeback album, an appearance from tonight's headliner is expected and the duo share a keyboard and comedy routine on None The Wiser. Higgins takes great joy in playing faux-DJ dressed in a hoody from her own merch line to a song that's Boucher's modern-day answer to '80s synth-pop. Boucher closes the set solo with her lead single 5678!, showing her proficiency with loop pedals and guitar, and highlighting a distinctive pop bent for which she is peerless in Australia.
As a beautifully hand-painted backdrop mirrors the artwork of her new album The Ol' Razzle Dazzle, Missy Higgins shows how pleased she is to be commanding the attention of a very vocal audience tonight as she strums out blues-tinged Secret. Her live vocal has always been pretty faultless, though she shows depth from the get-go despite a few years' absence from music, something she openly confronts throughout the set, and a point that only further solidifies an incredible relationship with fans. With a skilled five-piece band incorporating cello, a second set of keys, backing vocals aplenty and Boucher on “...bass and general atmosphere”, Higgins moves easily between guitar and keys, chatting, telling jokes and expertly directing the atmosphere with newbies Set Me On Fire and the quirky big band vibe of Hello Hello. She giggles through the start of This Is How It Goes after a trip to Lone Pine Koala Sancutary leads to talk of koala chlamydia, though her agility as a performer allows her to lead straight into reverberating keys that almost thump to mark her grandmother's passing on the beautiful Cooling Of The Embers. Introducing her comeback single Unashamed Desire, Higgins runs through the thought process for the instrument she chooses to do it with, wondering if anyone will get the irony before exclaiming: “I don't care... I wanna rock out my new single with a keytar!” It's a stomping version that truly communicates Higgins' newfound ease with her career, and her absolute joy in sharing her music across a lengthy set that is as much for the fans as it is for herself.
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