Live Review: Peanut Butter Wolf, Nite Jewel & Holiday Sidewinder

It was just after midnight when The Spiegeltent opened its doors for the last time for this year's Sydney Festival. Because of the delayed start support act Holiday Sidewinder and her guitar playing accompaniment Kirin J Callinan lasted just four songs before they made way for the headliners. With her previous band Bridezilla having recently played their final show, Sidewinder showed off dreamy new solo material. The dark, intermittent, jagged guitar playing of Callinan worked as a contrast to her floaty, high voice.

When lo-fi US singer-songwriter Nite Jewel arrived onstage to take her place behind her keyboards, she had the disappointing news that Peanut Butter Wolf couldn't make it and was stuck back in LA, so his Italian cousin Folerio would be taking his place. A bespectacled and wigged Wolf soon emerged to play drum machine while Nite Jewel's husband Cole M Greif-Neill took care of some of the more technical aspects of the music.

Taking a much more interactive approach to their live performance than the German pioneers they were paying tribute too, the three musicians bopped along as they worked their way through Kraftwerk's 1981 album Computer World. Wolf took care of the more robotic vocals while Nite Jewel's lighter, airy voice sat low in the mix of sounds, giving off a mysterious vibe well suited to a midnight show in The Spiegeltent.

Though they were innovators in their day and remain pioneers of electronica, this version of Kraftwerk was a great reminder that this was electronica with a pulse and a very relatable heart. Now that everyone is carrying not only their calculators around in their pockets, but their phone, iPads and the whole World Wide Web, dancing to the songs off Computer World doesn't feel nearly so outlandish as it would've in 1981.