Live Review: Bielfield & Glen

Starting at 7.30pm with no support, Lachlan Glen began with a short overture on keys before Kyle Bielfield took the stage on vocals with Pink Floyd’s Great Gig In The Sky.

Oh yeah, the screamy bit… was great. From here there was some Rachmaninoff (as you do), then onto Simon & Garfunkel (Homeward Bound) and a New York “mash-up” (more a medley) of Billy Joel, Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra proportions. After a short interval the pace picked up a bit with a shortened (if not slightly censored) version of Prince’s Kiss, jazz standards like I Get A Kick Out Of You, Summertime and I Got Rhythm. A bit less comfortable was a Dolly-via-Whitney version of I Will Always Love You, while the couple of originals were okay but needing a bit more oomph. The highlight of the second set was the reimagining of Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon, treated with sincerity and really elevated as a result. The small crowd was appreciative, but also aware of the problems of context. The strange mismatch between the type of show being attempted and the Metro setting was one that could have been quirky and cool, but just didn’t quite work.

There’s no denying the musical chops of Bielfield & Glen. They were almost athletic in the precision of their classical/pop crossover performance. However, putting broadcaster Alan Jones on the big screen at the Metro was certainly a first – and hopefully a last appearance for that kind. The duo’s cabaret-meets-easy listening needed a nice recital hall backdrop rather than the dormant speaker stacks of the Metro. And, they didn’t need Jones to tell the audience to look out for them “on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like” – a Wednesday night inner city crowd will find you for your musical pedigree rather than because they were told to give up telly on a school night.