Live Review: Olympia

How truly wonderful it is to see a bevy of excited faces for a local act at NGV's Friday Nights series. The energy is palpable, seemingly multiplied thanks to the sheer enormity of the Great Hall. There are literal jitters of anticipation throughout the crowd, the type of eagerness usually reserved for those of the international persuasion. A total assault on the senses — David Hockney, Viktor & Rolf and Olympia.

Known to her mates as Olivia Bartley, the Melbourne-born singer emerges in a sleek black dress, her tiny frame almost completely shielded by her guitar. Bartley's band are looking somewhere between Kraftwerk and restaurant wait staff, but the sounds that flow from just bass, drums and keys is phenomenal. The eddying, screeching tones of Honey kick off and Bartley's technical prowess comes into its own, forming a wall of sound with loops and fills. It seems to take a while for Bartley to feel totally comfortable as a performer but, when she finally addresses her audience after a stellar rendition of Beck's Dreams, she is totally affable and hilarious. "For those of you who clapped before we finished, you were right to. I messed up," she cheekily asserts, before urging a young member of the crowd to choose to learn bass over drums because "look at how much stuff you'd have to carry!"

One of the most enjoyable facets of Olympia is the ever-so-slightly odd melding of personas that Bartley manages to pull off. On the one hand, she shreds like a machine with all the glorious enigma of St Vincent, but her clear love of what she does beams through via that massive grin she can't erase from her face. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things sees this to a T, her contagious smile reaching its peak during the chorus's breathtaking falsetto. With Sydney-based muso Sarah Belkner on synths, the pair create astounding harmonies and instrumentally gel together with the masterfulness of seasoned veterans.

This artist is the complete package of a musician: as Bartley, she is charming, down to earth and mirthful, and as Olympia, she dominates any room she's in with jaw-dropping musicality and relentless energy. If the uproar that couples the intro of Smoke Signals is anything to go by, the audience love this incredible artist in any form she may come. It's anyone's guess as to what she'll bring to the table next, but, whatever it is, it will undoubtedly be incredible.