WashingtonBen Wright Smith is first up and gives a raw solo acoustic performance, passionately belting out his folk-rock tunes from the heart. Then The Tambourine Girls confuse us at first until Simon Relf clarifies that tonight the band is just one. He tells his name, and shoulder-length hair, often cause people to mistake him for a woman, which is starting to have an impact on his life. Megan Washington appears early and joins Relf on stage to share the microphone and harmoniously intertwine on classic Crosby, Stills & Nash cover, Helplessly Hoping.
As Washington returns to the stage to play her first solo note, all in the room are captivated, silent and still. Her Tangents tour is unlike any of her previous tours. Washington plays in a stripped-back, intimate setting with just her incredible voice and a keyboard at her fingertips. She's completely vulnerable, yet comfortably pours her heart out, laying all her emotional and empowering music before us. It's been a long time since she's done a solo show and Washington lets us know she can hear all our funny conversations just metres away, despite the dispersion of light that separates her from the audience. Washington fumbles through a notebook that rests next to her keyboard, it's her list of songs she knows how to play solo — "sort of," she claims. We're given the opportunity to call out some requests and a fan asks to hear an older track called Swallows. She hesitates at first but as soon as she begins it flows out perfectly. Special guest Dean Ray joins her on stage to perform a duo the newly acquainted couple wrote together just 72 hours ago. The pair spark a musical connection as they sing face to face while Ray strums along on guitar.
"Do you wanna play a game?" Washington asks. On the count of three she gets an audience member to call out a random word at the same time she does. The combination results in "Whisky/Fish", which uncannily matches an exact lyric in her next song, Mirror In The Mirror. We appreciate her honesty as she calls bullshit on encores, instead letting us know she's just going to keep playing until she dies. She continues with Underground, apparently the only song she knows how to play on guitar, followed by Cement, during which she makes quirky comparisons to Monster Mash. The hits about her messed-up love live keep on coming with I Believe You Liar, Begin Again and a new song in a similar vein that's yet to be recorded. One For Sorrow is Washington's final track and she delivers it with her all.
