"Donnelly returns and the duo to perform a brilliant cover of Peter Bjorn & John's 'Young Folks'... and they complement one another perfectly (even with a broken guitar string)."
Alexander Biggs describes himself as the "crusty stale bread" in the three-act sandwich tonight, before adding, "Stella is the premium vegetables and Alex is the really good sourdough." His warm, acoustic folk is an important base layer, however. Biggs' lyrics and melodies stir up a range of powerful emotions, particularly one heartbreaking track about a loved one dying in a car accident and another about friends in a toxic relationship. There's a lot of distracting chatter and laughter in the audience so Biggs makes a passive aggressive call-out for the audience not to talk during his last two songs: Tidal Wave and Gone Again.
"Tonight is a safe space for everyone," says Stella Donnelly. Starting off with a sublime cover of No Room For Doubt by Lianne La Havas, Donnelly calms everyone down before swearing at us during her own confronting and honest tunes. Her crisp and clear vocals are refreshing to hear, particularly in a live setting, and they're served up with added comedic banter. Donnelly is so appealing because of her ability to sing about sensitive topics in a relatable and candid manner. Tonight she shares songs about her family Christmases in Perth, working as a bartender in a pub and going on a really bad Tinder date.
Donnelly gives us a content warning before diving into Boys Will Be Boys, a song that addresses sexual assault. "It's my call-out to stop questioning victims and instead look at perpetrators!" she exclaims. Donnelly then presents a fun cover of Basement Jaxx's Good Luck and her vocals are absolutely superb. Donnelly dubs this song as her "skinny white-girl version" of an Australian Idol audition and, judging by the crowd's reaction, she's through this round.
"I love Melbourne!" shouts Alex The Astronaut (aka Alexandra Lynn), before telling us this is where she started school and also "graffitied for the first time". Lynn's upbeat personality proves infectious as she sings mostly joyful songs including a new one she introduces as "The Happy Song". We get to know it before everyone else since she teaches us the words and a catchy singalong with plenty of "da-da-da"s ensues. Lynn tells a lot of funny stories between songs, but she always somehow manages to segue into her next song (between giggles). But Lynn's capable of being serious, too, sharing a very emotional song about losing her friend in a car accident that recognises the importance of grieving.
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Donnelly returns and the duo to perform a brilliant cover of Peter Bjorn & John's Young Folks (and again later on for an encore of Jimmy Eat World's The Middle) and they complement one another perfectly (even with a broken guitar string). Lynn says she feels a bit weird about encores and pretends to leave the stage before Donnelly joins her, singing us out with a few karaoke-style choruses of ABBA's Dancing Queen as the audience heads toward the exit full of positive vibes.