Live Review: Sarah Blasko, Appleonia

4 February 2014 | 9:24 am | Ching Pei Khoo

“Sarah Blasko. I love you more than God!” an ardent fan calls out in a thick European accent. There is no doubting that the Blasko’s performance in St Michael’s is a divine liturgy in itself.

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The ingenious Heavenly Sounds kicks off its 2014 Melbourne tour with the mesmerising Appleonia (aka Jessica Chapnik Khan), who appears to play the black swan to Sarah Blasko tonight.  Her gritty, magnetic vocals enshrouded in mysticism fill the ornate coved ceilings and indigo-lit dome towering above her as she holds open a worn copy of Samael Avn Weor's Gnostic Bible with one hand and sings verses from Pistis Sophia. “You're all braver than those in Brisbane,” she smiles to the audience's warm reaction at the song's conclusion. Closing her set way too soon, she leaves us with the haunting She Is The Sun, utilising the venue's intricate architecture to indulge in some spine-tingling acoustic harmonies.

Twin candelabras on either side of the majestic piano organ are lit during the intermission, casting coppery red highlights on the individual pipes fanned out over the apse.  The wrought iron halo of lights above are dimmed and Sarah Blasko – sweet, prim, and smart in a belted black dress with white collar – emerges from the vestry behind with bandmates Benjamin Fletcher (guitar) and David Hunt (grand piano). Performing without the backing of an orchestra as she had in the past allows us to marvel at Blasko's ethereal voice in all its purity, and she certainly doesn't hold back. With sweeping, unconscious movements, Blasko gives physicality to each word and musical nuance, breathing life into them through echoed harmonies, outstretched arms, slow sways, deep squats and long gazes fixed upwards.  It's not that she has forgotten the audience's presence – rather, she gives herself over to her music, immersing completely in its moment, especially in All Of Me and Here. And she catches everyone in her celestial slipstream. We sit motionless in the cushion-lined timber pews, not daring to move lest we break the aura she effortlessly weaves.

Blasko breaks out of character sparingly between tracks, sprinkling a little skittish greeting or alluring question, eager to ease the audience into feeling comfortable with the unorthodox surroundings. “Jess and I grew up in a lot of churches, but none were as pretty as this one,” she says midway, and even pretends to pose in a prowling stance to make us feel 'as silly' as she does. But there is nothing silly about her musical offerings. The marching I Awake and the foreboding God-Fearing add tempo variation and remind us that beneath the coy and angelic persona is mettle made of steel.   

“Sarah Blasko.  I love you more than God!” an ardent fan calls out in a thick European accent.  There is no doubting that the Blasko's performance in St Michael's is a divine liturgy in itself.

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