Live Review: Kate Miller-Heidke

Kate Miller-Heidke is no stranger to making her quirk-pop work in an intimate acoustic performance setting such as wineries.

But for the tour of her O Vertigo! record release, Bird In Hand Winery had to up the stage game to include all the trimmings of a concert plus extras such as heaters and food vans to welcome the crowd in. Now we’re talking.

And boy was she the best looking 18^th century clown meets shuttle cock ever.
 

Young UK lad Ryan Keen was the opener for the night, and would be joining Kate for the tour. He charmed the crowd not only with his percussive use of his acoustic guitar and open tuning throughout the set, but had a party trick or two to keep them hooked.

Party trick number one was versing Coldplay to Rihanna at a crowd response battle to decide which song Keen would cover. The cheers overcoming the squeals putting Coldplay on top and Keen giving the crowd an instrumental Fix You. Party trick number two was the attempt of getting the whole marque to stay quiet for Keen to play a completely un-plugged original track. A fairly good result bar a few loud glorified bogans, but mostly a special moment shared between Keen and his up close standing crowd.

After what feels like forever in the ice-cold winter night, finally a host welcomes Kate Miller-Heidke and her band to the stage and promises the music will at least warm the soul.  Although taking to the stage in a coat just like everyone else, after a warm up opening song KMH reviled an outfit that she described as “an 18^th century clown meets shuttle cock”. And boy was she the best looking 18^th century clown meets shuttle cock ever.

There were avid fans in the crowd that were grateful to have KMH visiting Adelaide, to hear the songs they loved and related to and to have new songs join their collection.  The joys of Are You Fucking Kidding Me and Shake It turns to the raw emotion of James, Sarah and Mama, all was covered. O Vertigo! really showed off those classically trained pipes. What an ability to flutter out notes, and almost a yodel finale to the song with perfect control.  Not the only party trick for this set either with a genre crushing cover of Wrecking Ball to the instrumental of Metallica’s One.

Despite all of KMH’s show stealing talents, her backing band should not go unnoticed. Clearly a skilled, very professional bunch that built the songs into a performance and bought those stories to life.