Stella DonnellyThe night is warm but there's a cool breeze blowing through South Bank as we walk towards The Milk Factory, a little kitchen and bar isolated among the mess of other buildings.
There's a decent crowd already milling about nice and early for tonight's sold out performance.
Starting the night is ambient wonder woman Jaimee Fryer, who goes by Pool Shop. It's just one woman and her guitar, and ethereal, delicate sounds echo throughout the room. It feels more like we're all standing around inside her imagination than inside a bar, as we're transported to another dimension far from anyone's troubles. Fryer's guitar, both pre-recorded and improvised, combine and weave a journey of emotions, with her soft vocals telling a beautiful story through each song.
The crowd clears out after her set, with some people taking to the bar to order drinks and food and others heading outside for some air. It's not long before we see our next artist get up on stage, and the first tentative sounds of her guitar herald everyone and more back into the room. Asha Jefferies plucks away at her guitar, and her voice fills the room instantly, her folk-roots vibe getting everyone swaying along gently. It's a very calm and attentive room tonight, with everyone just completely absorbed into the artists and their music. Looking around, you see people's eyes and faces filled with wonder.
After the last, haltering echo of Jefferies' voice has finished, the room only gets more crowded. The few people that have been sitting on cushions at the front of the room get up and shuffle forward to make more room for people to fill in, and the smile of Perth up-and-comer Stella Donnelly as she prepares on stage is enough to quell the tension. She doesn't chatter much before her first song, Grey, which has everyone mesmerised, but as soon as she's finished and the crowd erupts into applause, she breaks back into a grin and starts to talk to us all like old friends, as if she was having a conversation with us one at a time. "I love Brisbane; Brisbane and Perth are the same, we look out for each other," she says, always with that cheeky grin, as she tunes her guitar for the next song.
She goes through unreleased songs You Owe Me and Should Have Stayed Home, both with hilarious little anecdotes after and sometimes during, about bad bosses and bad tinder dates that have the audience in stitches, and even when she forgets the words to newly written verses it's charming. On the more delicate side of her set however, is her appreciation and care for her friends and fans, as she solemnly gives us a trigger warning for her next song, Boys Will Be Boys. It's a chilling story about rape and lack of accountability and the entire song has everyone silent until we all break out into applause as she finishes.
The rest of the set goes along pretty much the same way - not like a gig but more like hanging out with a close friend, and Donnelly chats to us the whole way through. She plays us a new song about family Christmas, a love song, a few more songs off her debut EP Thrush Metal, and before we realise it's time to say goodbye. But it's not really goodbye when Donnelly stays to hang around with the crowd. It's no wonder Stella Donnelly is quickly becoming an Australian favourite.
