Live Review: James Vincent McMorrow

“If you're wondering why I haven't said much tonight it's because I'm so nervous,” were the leading words out of James Vincent McMorrow's mouth at his first Sydney Opera House performance. “I don't know what I did to deserve this. It's just crazy.”

In Sydney as part of Vivid – and touring Australia for his latest album Post Tropical – the Irish singer-songwriter has already amassed quite the following Down Under, partly because of his debut album Early In The Morning, and partly due to his raw cover of Steve Winwood's 1986 hit Higher Love.

Amongst a flight of pyramidal, glowing stalagmites McMorrow apprehended the crowd's attention with his haunting melodies and managed to keep it through an impressive set drenched in emotional weight.

The pounding synth on Red Dust was like a collective heartbeat, gaining momentum as intensity rose, only to dissipate and give way to McMorrow's lingering falsetto, painfully exclaiming, “I need someone to love/I need someone to hold.” The popular We Don't Eat went down the same path with the emotionally fueled song culminating in McMorrow forcefully drumming along to the final chorus.

Whilst making the most of his trademark falsetto, McMorrow also utilised his talented backing band to their utmost potential. Every drum beat, every chord struck managed to resonate as strongly as McMorrow's voice, like on Look Out, where the initial soft-treading piano peaks in a collective, powerful clashing of sounds.

After a few restarts (and a mild technical glitch mid-performance) Cavalier was a memorable blend of swirling instrumentals and climactic highs. Higher Love and encore performance And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop reinforced that the moneymaker is in McMorrow's confessional-like vocals, the latter feeling like an emotional purge, both for McMorrow and the audience.

Finishing off with If I Had A Boat, which was layered in ghostly harmonies and tribal pulses, McMorrow and his band almost seemed surprised to be greeted with a standing ovation. By the whistles and cheers from the crowd, he had nothing to be nervous about in the first place.