AdalitaWith a penchant for raw and wild balladry, Laura Jean Englert is quite a perfect opener for a national tour with one of Australia's finest ladies of rock. With her trademark yellow SC Gibson, a prize from APRA's 2009 Professional Development Award and the talisman for moving into a more rock-heavy sound for 2011's excellent record A Fool Who'll, she cuts a lone figure as she gets down to the business of pouring out her heart. Missing You is a love song, plain and simple; a heartache so lonely it reaches into every corner. A mournful yet beautiful cover of Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness follows, and when Englert hits the high notes of Australia, the execution is imperfect, but it conveys an emotion more real and touching than any flawless delivery could manage.
Rolling onto stage with her guitar slung low and a “G'day Brissie”, Adalita Srsen pushes straight into the trance-like, repeated chord framework of Annihilate Baby until the unrelenting melodic drone is felt internally. The opener of her new solo record All Day Venus sports an extended outro to signal the ease with which Srsen has assimilated with her three new band mates, while the title track returns to the fat, punishing guitar tones once the Magic Dirt legend has shown she can be sweet and feminine too with I Want Your Love. Laura Jean mesmerizes again when invited onstage to provide backing vocals for the waltzy He Wrote; the pair have a great connection. Stripping back to solo, Srsen offers a slow, calculated and intensely hot version of Fool Around, while Perfection feels like an old friend. Heavy Cut is something else though; large, furious and beautiful, the switch between Srsen's regular level of dirty guitar and max-power distortion is utterly thrilling. With the band back, current single Trust Is Rust is predictably a highlight, while Too Far Gone is epic, soaring and hopeful as it teases the set to a close of drawn out shredding. A vibrant encore of Blue Sky comes too soon, but the damage of witnessing such an intense roller coaster performance is already done – Srsen and co. have put on one of the shows of the year.
