Live Review: Moses Sumney

With barely any lights on, a black curtain draped around the microphone stands and wearing all black, Moses Sumney made his way onto Sydney Opera House's Concert Hall stage and started to sing Self-Help Tape; the final song from his debut album, Aromanticism - one of the best and most heart-breaking albums of 2017.

If you didn't know who Sumney was before coming to this concert, you would have done a double-take. What. Is. That. Voice? It's like nothing you've ever heard before. It can transition from low and brooding to a soaring falsetto without a breath in between.

Three songs in and after hearing one of his biggest hits, Indulge Me, we started wondering if this whole concert would be dark, moody and avant-garde, but all of a sudden Sumney came to life. "I can't believe they let us in here!" he exclaimed. With a smirk and a look of awe, he surveyed the Concert Hall and told us about how his mum called during soundcheck. The crowd smiled, relaxed and sat back to enjoy not only his remarkable voice, but also his charming personality.

Rank & File gave Sumney a chance to split the audience up. After some deliberation, he divided us by age and we got a chance to sing in the great hall ourselves. We had no chance of matching the sheer talent of the man onstage, though. Supported by a talented trio of musicians, Sumney utilised loops, AutoTune and synth to augment his voice and his music. Apart from an almost uncomfortably loud finish to Lonely World (sound booms in this venue), it was easy to get lost in the music.

He returned for an encore, but didn't want to finish just yet. "I feel like this is too soon. Maybe I should ask for requests?" A good idea in theory, until song titles were thrown at him from around the hall, barely discernible from each other. "Well, this was pointless," he admitted. He finally landed on Man On The Moon and it was a beautiful rendition. We were left on a high with Plastic, safe in the knowledge that we'd witnessed a gig that meant as much to the artist as it did to all of us.