Live Review: Sarah Blasko

Tonight, Sarah Blasko reminded us that the Adelaide Festival’s floating performance venue The Palais is a fantastic venue for live music (and not just an 11-month-of-the-year eyesore). The stunning riverbank cityscape was the perfect backdrop for this special musical event and the enthusiastic crowd and perfect weather all did their part to make this the ideal night to be ‘outdoors’ enjoying live music.

Dressed in a black-and-white poker-dot outfit, Blasko took to the stage a few minutes after the scheduled 8pm kick-off. With just a simple "hello", she and band launched into opener Phantom from her latest album Depth Of Field. Blasko’s dance moves are unique, but she looked to be having fun the whole time.

Material from the new album featured prominently, including Everybody Wants To Sin, Never Let Me Go and Heaven Sent. However, it was the songs from her amazing 2009 album As Day Follows Night that were the highlights of the night, as always. The thumping No Turning Back, the mesmerising All I Want and the beautiful We Won’t Run even manage to silence the chattier members of the crowd.

While introducing God-Fearing as a song about the music industry and her love-hate relationship with it, Blasko suddenly expressed mock sadness for those fans held back by a fence in the venue’s upstairs level, joking, “I feel like you’re being held back... Let the people go.” The people stayed.

After holding us captivated for just over an hour, the group finished their set with Eternal Return’s sublime I Am Ready and swiftly exited the raft. Thankfully they returned for a two-song encore, including the Kate Bush-esque I Wanna Be Your Man and the perfect finale, I Awake.

Twelve months ago, Blasko performed in Adelaide’s Victoria Square on a sunny Sunday afternoon (at the Supermassive Family Music Festival, with Frente! as one of the support acts). That child-friendly event saw the front row packed with six-year-olds. Tonight’s attendees were much older, no less enthusiastic, and also likely home at a reasonable hour.