Live Review: Bec Sandridge

As one sun rises, another sets. It seemed fitting that Sydney local and rising star Bec Sandridge takes centre stage (and sells out) for one of the Newtown Social's final performances. Even if, as she told the audience time and time again, she was a bit nervous.

She might have been, but it certainly didn't show — other than some charming idle chatter: "I've spilt all of my Coca-Cola, definitely the most rock'n'roll thing I've ever done."

Sandridge has an impeccable commitment to storytelling. A commitment that is helped by her hair, which is a character all its own. Summoning girlish nostalgia, Sandridge casually dipped into a dreamy rendition of High Tide, imparting some sage advice to the audience: "Everyone should imagine themselves walking to the corner store to get themselves an icy pole." You're A Fucking Joke is wild — the scathing lyrics apparently inspired by a trip to Scotland that ended in heartbreak — and her voice channels Kate Bush in scorn.

There's a real power in Sandridge's performances that comes from her flair for character and, of course, a voice that is able to slide from deeply emotive and intimate to blasting power balladry just as easily as her hands do on the neck of her guitar.

She rounded out the evening with her divisive cover of John Farnham's You're The Voice (somehow her hair is decisively neat again by the time the end of the set comes around) and declares that after releasing the cover "there aren't any dickheads at my shows anymore — they all hate me now". Their loss.