Live Review: Lamb, Olympia

Melbourne songstress Olivia Bartley as Olympia cuts an intriguing figure in solo mode tonight with her fierce shock of blonde hair and striped jumpsuit, and though she has a clearly extraordinary voice, it’s somewhat downplayed within the layers of backing vocals and looping. Current single, Honey, is a well-constructed pop song and, true to its title, sweet as hell. 

Doing the rounds in support of their sixth album, Backspace Unwind, British duo Lamb open with the album’s first two tracks, which serve to highlight the strengths of their almost two-decade career. In Binary preps the room for the set’s beat-heavy moments with a bottom end that reverberates internally, while We Fall In Love is spacey, echoing and tender as it builds with carefully placed production flourishes and that certain sort of yearning that Lou Rhodes’ lyricism is so adept at creating.

The frontwoman is radiant in a flowing white dress and “up-do”, moving elegantly as her rowdy counterpart, Andy Barlow, dressed in a muscle tee, bounces like an over-exuberant puppy behind his stacks of production gear and keys. On paper, this partnership shouldn’t work – Barlow can be difficult to watch at times as he threatens to derail Rhode’s graceful performance style with his continuous fist punching and “yeah baby” whoops that seem to have been honed during long residency stints at Ibiza rather than intimate theatre shows, though it’s this contrasting energy that is precisely the appeal of Lamb’s recorded output.

"The payoff for long-time fans comes with the poignant set highlight, Gabrielle."

From the ominous backdrop that touring bassist Jon Thorne paints for the foreboding What Makes Us Human to the gentle jazz swing of Nobody Else, vaguely recalling the vibe of Portishead’s Glory Box, the set is heavy with tracks from the new album, though it’s constructed so as to maintain continued interest. The payoff for long-time fans comes with the poignant set highlight, Gabrielle, where Rhodes can’t help but shine even brighter across the perfectly-articulated slow-burner. The big singles are largely reserved for an impressive encore, and Barlow joyfully makes use of the drum kit for the only time this evening for an aggressive percussive interlude amidst What Sound, Rhodes joining in with a floor tom. Though it’s heartwarming to hear Gorecki live, the sweeping string samples and delicate delivery lose some of the sheen live, possibly through overexposure at thousands of weddings in the past decade.

It’s been a performance full of beautiful contrasts and controlled chaos, yet also a level of tenderness that should in theory belie the heavy club beats and brain-affecting strobes that are a particularly important part of the Lamb experience. As the trio bid farewell, an industrial interlude ushers punters either out into a rainy Tuesday, or to the merch desk where a waiting Barlow has promised hugs all round.