Live Review: Kyle Lionhart

Kicking off his national Call Back Home tour, singer-songwriter Kyle Lionhart performed at Crown And Anchor Hotel to an eager crowd of fans.

Lionhart stepped on stage a little after 9.30pm and there was an almost immediate connection with the audience as he had people laughing along with him within minutes. After an initial hiccup with getting sound from his guitar, the show ran smoothly for the better part of two hours with a simple set-up of one microphone and three acoustic guitars that Lionhart swapped between as he played through released and unreleased material.

Lionhart's soulful, neo-folk vocal tone resonated throughout the room. Songs like Slow Sips and Compromise offered softer guitar strums and fingerpicking supported the intensity of Lionhart's emotive vocals. The melodies were catchy although Lionhart struggled to enunciate at times. Between songs, he talked about the inspiration behind them, which gave them context and made the themes feel fresh, personal and relatable.

Lionhart told a lot of stories that he referred to as being "irrelevant" to the show, but somehow hearing about how he was growing his hair out after one too many bad haircuts added something unique to the experience. In fact, with his charming, easygoing nature Lionhart surely gained a few new fans this evening.

He's only released six songs to date but Lionhart informed us that a mini-album will drop soon, which is something to look forward to.