Live Review: Alex The Astronaut, Clea, Oly Sherman

Oly Sherman has a beautiful voice, it has to be said. Long, soaring notes and precise guitar strums from his Telecaster highlighted a solo set of songs that really showed off his vocals. Playing tracks from his debut EP Embrace, Sherman entranced the early crowd.

Ever since Clea's debut single Polyester popped up on triple j Unearthed in 2015 and exploded on Spotify, Clea's star has been steadily rising. With her appearance at BIGSOUND and a beautifully made EP under her belt, 2017 has been a breakthrough year for the 22-year-old. Tonight's set displayed songwriting skills, clever and well-crafted chord progressions and a lilting Laura Marling-esque voice. Her singles stand out, but a track that she wrote last week and struggled to remember the capo position for was a set highlight.

With a large portion of the crowd being rudely noisy during the support sets, they all then rushed towards the stage for the final act. Alex The Astronaut, aka Alex Lynn, has certainly sparked a lot of interest following a couple of well-rotated singles and an appearance at Sydney's Marriage Equality march in September. This, her first headline Sydney show, was sold out and emphasised her growing spark.

Launching straight into William & Georgia, Lynn kicked off a magical set that combined everything we are learning to love from her. We were treated to a story and a chat in between each song, which is rare nowadays, and we clambered for it. Lynn's quirky personality shone as she recounted stories of her time in New York during the song of the same name, Rockstar City and Northern Boulevard. We heard about how Paul Kelly listened to her songs and then mentioned that one, in particular, sounded quite similar to his. Cheekily strumming the opening chords of Kelly' s To Her Door, she transitioned to Holes In The Story to show the similarities. "Holy fuck!" she exclaimed in response to the fact that her idol could sue her.

We were moved to tears as she played a new song written in memoriam to a friend who recently passed. Banksia moved the crowd to silence and Lynn sang it emotionally. It was a touching moment. We were treated to all the emotions throughout a hugely enjoyable set and were then encouraged to sing along to Already Home as it closed out the main set.

An encore of I Believe In Music was a joyous finale to a show that launches Alex The Astronaut as an exceptional modern-day songwriter and character that is destined for exciting things.