Live Review: Bob Evans, Tigertown, Davey Lane

Among the shipping containers at The Bakery, Bob Evans treated fans to a very personal concert, and one for all sorts at that. The effervescent and ever-young Davey Lane, doing his thing on his electric guitar and backed by a carefully and personally mixed backing track, kicked off the night. Davey's set retained a sense of style and a clean sound that is only what could be expected from him, and his playing just looked effortless.

Following up Davey's set were Sydneysiders Tigertown, with their own brand of sweet and ambient indie pop music. Husband and wife combo Chris and Charlie Collins came forth in the vocal harmonies, and two more voices joined them from time to time. Their sound was tight, their drums were clean, and their synths were ethereal.

Bob Evans himself did not start until around 11pm, by which time everyone was pretty ready to receive him. Davey Lane graced the stage once again to provide lead guitar for the backing band, and he tore through the repertoire with his solos and added vastly to the sound. The man of the moment sang with an effortless humility and progressive drunkenness as he made his way through a bottle of red, and strummed away on his acoustic guitar wrapped in fairy lights. The crowd was treated to a number of different styles and soul-baring moments, with Bob and his lads playing everything from his Jebediah-oriented rockers, to his bittersweet and tender acoustic ballads. His performance of Wonderful You, from his latest album Familiar Stranger, was the embodiment of the latter. The band went backstage as Bob unplugged his guitar, stepped down from the stage and wandered through the crowd showing that he could still write a song as heartfelt as ever before. He followed that lovely number with another ballad; the well-known Don't You Think It's Time.

About halfway through his set Bob put a point to the crowd: to all those who were yelling out requests, they had to get up on stage and help him sing. Hilariously, people became instantly shy about what they were yelling out to him, where they had before been adamantly requesting Turn. Bob, with his tongue in his cheek, began to sing the hit made famous by The Byrds in 1965 and then stated that he would need some help if he were to sing the 'other one'. He let the idea sink in, but nobody took him up on the offer. In the encore, however, Bob managed to get two individuals named Ben and Laura up on stage with him to sing it.