Live Review: James Bay, Sinead Burgess

With beautiful flowing locks and guitar in hand, talented singer-songwriter Sinead Burgess quickly captures our attention with her powerhouse vocals. Standing barefoot before her microphone stand, which is draped in brightly coloured flowers and a dreamcatcher, she treats us to organic, bubbly country-pop that is rich in raw emotion.

The songstress opens up to the audience about some of the inspiration behind her songs: a track about an important love in her life, and another recounting a realisation about how important home is after being on the road. Her impressive strong range is showcased in a cover of the Tears For Fears classic Mad World, a song she admits she wishes she wrote and delivers perfectly.

James Bay ignites the stage with an electrifying guitar riff kicking off with an upbeat and infectious track, Craving. This intimate, sold out show in a place far from home sees the young British singer-songwriter overwhelmed with gratitude for his fans. Epitomising a rock star look with his trademark wide-brimmed hat and shoulder-length hair, Bay shares his passion for music as he bares his soul with warm and honest lyrics that leave us hanging on every rasp.

Bay recounts his first time in Melbourne and an experience in a juice bar where a song request was exchanged for his berry smoothie. He dedicates Wait In Line to this swooning, juice bar fan who is in the audience tonight. Continuing with charming spotlight moments, Bay shares emotionally driven tracks from his recently released EPs The Dark Of The Morning and Let It Go. Beginning with husky, tender whispered notes, Bay performs with control and restraint as he takes us on a journey, slowly building up to choruses with catchy hooks and soaring vocals.

Scars, a song lifted from his upcoming debut album Chaos And The Calm, is a heartfelt ballad that Bay explains took him about two years to write. A special someone who moved away and showed up on Bay’s doorstep a year later inspired this personal, moving track that builds up to a peak of great intensity. Leaving us with his final and most anticipated track Hold Back The River, Bay ends with a spectacular performance complete with gospel-tinged, anthemic choruses and spine-tingling vocals. An incredibly talented young musician who delivers a flawless live performance and promises big things for 2015.