Live Review: Montaigne, Bec Sandrige

Montaigne

Bec Sandridge "sounds like sandwich" (her words), and aims to get us hot and sweaty right away. She's already puffed out by the first song and she welcomes us to a room that's feeling like we're well into a Bikram Yoga class. Sandridge has a striking look with platinum blonde hair, thick dark eye brows and ruby red lips to match her quirky pop-rock style. We can tell she's feeling pretty hyped tonight, and it may have something to do with the can of Sunkist that she's consuming. She invites us to do a blind tasting comparison with Fanta after the show for any fizzy orange drink enthusiasts. As she launches into a new song called High Tide we join her in imagining we're driving a Cadillac or for those with a little less money, we settle for a push-bike instead. She lets loose about a "hypothetical" Facebook unfriend situation on You're A Fucking Joke, with a few Kookaburra-like calls to a steady staccato beat.

Montaigne emerges in a red velvet cape with shiny gold trimmings. She guesses that we're all a bit confused that she's starting off with I'm A Fantastic Wreck (one of her self-proclaimed best tracks). She confidently explains that she has many more amazing tunes to share with us from her ARIA-nominated debut album. It's a pretty special night, being the first of two headline sold-out shows back at the place she last played in 2014. Now look how far she's come!

The audience has the clapping down-pat and so Montaigne asks us to take it one step further for a participatory live voice box recording attempt. The room is divided into halves as we each sing a verse of Lonely, which begins to play on a loop in the background. We all join in and feel alone together. Of course, there's no way to match her impossible pitch level. Montaigne is a force to be reckoned with. She jokingly practices for her ARIA speech and her exceptional sarcasm takes us on a journey of romance and/or laughter (depending on how we choose to interpret it) in Because I Love You. We stare in amazement of her possessed-like moves during the spectacularly twisted performance of In The Dark. 

Montaigne makes us feel alive in every moment of her music. We agree that it's quite a time to be alive, not only because it's the first time she has merchandise available, but because we get to witness such a brilliant young artist truly reach glorious heights right before us.