Live Review: Missy Higgins, Gurrumul, Emma Louise

Emma Louise has a voice like Megan Washington and sings like Sia. She can pull it off, without even taking a deep breath, but her lower register, as heard on Boy, is just so perfectly warm as it hits your ear that it's a shame she doesn't use it more. Cages provided some fuzzy melodies and gave an interesting sneak peak of her upcoming debut album. Jungle was of course a highlight, but topped by 1000 Sundowns, which tugged at the heartstrings of the room as though accompanying her with a harp.

The most confronting thing about Gurrumul is how overtly bursting with love for music he is for such a tiny man. After playing with him in Perth and becoming slightly obsessed, Gurrumul managed to splice some Angus Stone Wooden Chair love into his set and then seamlessly slipped in some outback reggae fusion by dropping the one on “Pussy Cat Dance” (Marwurrumburra). His duet with Missy Higgins was nothing short of amazing. Who knew such a flat vowel could sound so perfect when paired with the highly contrasting soft murmur of a tumbling native tongue?

Missy Higgins is dinky di in the best possible way. No fake encores, just longer sets. Always playing all of her hits. Letting slip little secrets about surprise performances at awards ceremonies. Even making her producer and collaborator Butterfly Boucher play an original in the middle of her own set is such an Australian thing to do to your friend. All of these things, combined with the brutal honesty of her songwriting and her phenomenal voice, are why she is one of the most disarming and enchanting arrangements of atoms to ever take the stage. It is her level of relaxed comfort that pulls you in and makes a stadium show feel like an intimate gig. After the story of her grandmother's dementia was laid bare in Cooling Of The Embers and guttural angst put into Gotye's Heart's A Mess cover, there was barely a dry eye in the stadium. Her second album featured heavily with Warm Whispers providing a Coldplay-style climax and Peachy striding into a swampy alt country groove. Tracks from the newbie sat alongside them nicely, with All In My Head and Unashamed Desire both gobsmacking. Welcome back Missy!