Live Review: Paloma Faith, Joel Culpepper

Joel Culpepper was a fitting opener, with a fun set of by-the-numbers funk tunes and a couple of covers, the best of which was an energetic rendition of Kelis’ Millionaire.

Paloma Faith is an entertainer all too rare in the current popular landscape, a big, unabashedly fun personality to match bombastic songs. There’s a sense of her missing the important brain-to-mouth filter with her stage banter, riffing on capitalists and socialism like Russell Brand in a sparkly dress, her political opinions in stark contrast to her thematically safe music.

Faith isn’t the untouchable diva; she’s the elegant party girl – she’ll get up on the piano and shimmy her way through a tune, but she’ll do it all with every hair in place. During her set she danced with her guitarists before mock-fighting them and performed a number of cleverly coordinated dances with her outstanding back-up singer.

Her voice is criminally underused in her songs. When she hit the screeching highs of Only Love Can Hurt Like This, there were genuine shivers and gasps from the audience. Her cover of INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart was superbly heartbreaking in its simplicity, and she could leap from down-tempo to hip-shaking enthusiasm in tunes like Other Woman with barely a breath between. Unfortunately in the first half, her vocals were drowned in the music, a funky adult-contemporary vibe that sometimes sparkled but was occasionally middling. If it wasn’t for Faith’s vivacious stage presence, swooshing the train of her sequinned dress, stomping her feet for emphasis, so much of this set would’ve fallen flat.

Considering Faith is for the most part new to Australian audiences, she did amazing work in getting the crowd on her side. Judging by the final cheers and applause, she’s garnered a roomful of new fans.