Live Review: Harts, Fan Girl

Throughout Fan Girl's entire 45-minute set, the restlessness from the crowd is almost overwhelming. It's quickly made apparent that people are here to see Harts, and only Harts. Despite the lack of attention that's given to them, Fan Girl manage to deliver a vibrant and often messy set, although messiness is quite clearly their intention and ultimately their strong suit. However, within the first minute of Harts sauntering up to the microphone, the energetic performance of Fan Girl seems like a distant memory. 

Mere weeks after the release of his debut LP Smoke Fire Hope Desire, Harts (aka Darren Hart) takes the stage to gift the audience with a mind-blowing performance that puts most musicians to shame. Hart is one of those musicians that many desire to emulate, knowing all along they'd never be able to pull it off. Standing contently at centre-stage — draped in a bold, red velvet blazer - Hart is here solely to blow us away and then sit back and wait for the impact of the night to sink in.

Hart's ability to command the room is made very clear during Fear In Me, as he manages to get the crowd to move the same body parts that were so reluctant to even muster a clap just half an hour earlier during Fan Girl's set. As Hart launches into crowd favourite Breakthrough, which is carried largely by the adoring audience, a minor technical issue cuts the song short. For a minute the stage is empty and silence spreads through the room. This appears to be somewhat of a ploy, however, as Hart resurfaces, apologises to the crowd and promises to make it up to us. This is followed by a full-blown four minutes of the drummer and Hart going balls-to-the-wall nuts on their instruments, greeted by reassuring cheers from the audience.

Throughout the night, Hart constantly alternates between two microphones on either side of the stage, which allows for those who copped the shorter end of the gene pool to have a proper gander at the musical prodigy. The climax of the night comes as Hart lifts the guitar behind his head and starts going to town on his instrument, making anyone currently struggling with guitar lessons seriously start to consider a venture into accounting. At the end of the hour-long set, as Hart decides that he's wowed the crowd just enough, he drops the guitar and strolls off the stage, knowing full well he's made one hell of an impression.