Amanda PalmerIf there's one Sydney Festival performance that's worth your hard-earned cash, it's Amanda Palmer's solo show at The Spiegeltent. GO AND SEE THIS SHOW. IT IS LIFE-AFFIRMING.
Hopefully that sentence was enough information for those of you idly flicking through the pages of this magazine, because everyone should seriously go to this show.
Palmer commenced her phenomenal run of ten shows at The Spiegeltent (which in itself is super cool because it's a freaking giant, fancy tent) in an hour-long set that packed one hell of an emotional punch. In My Mind was a comical look at deeper insecurity issues whilst the unrelentingly honest Bigger On The Inside saw Palmer tiptoe through a song that revealed delicate truths, line after line.
As something of an ode to Australia, Palmer performed a poignant rendition of Ted Egan's The Drover's Boy before covering Bats For Lashes' Laura in a charming duet with Sydney musician Brendan Maclean. Sometimes covers can seem a little bit of a cop-out, especially in short sets that already omit great songs, but the two above were phenomenal reworkings of the originals and thematically slotted right in with the rest of the set.
A theatrical performer in every sense of the word, Palmer has the genuinely rare talent of balancing out those theatrics so as to not overpower her underlying thematic focuses. She could easily fall into the ultra-zealous and hollow mould of, say, Lady Gaga, but there's a lot of heart to Palmer's performances, and her emotional connection with her audience keeps her from falling into that cliché. The sharp, lively Map Of Tasmania is an unusually touching and affirming track considering its tongue-in-cheek nature.
Once again, do yourself a favour and buy tickets to this show. An audience member nearby described the show as 'cleansing' and that's the perfect way to describe it; for an hour you are emotionally run through the wash, coming out the other side a little exhausted and hazy but also a little brighter.
