The Men My Mother Loved is an ode to the realisation that parents had a life before your existence. However, don't go expecting a made-up character or two like last year's Pirate Rhapsody, Mermaid Requiem. This is Bradson stripped down, bare, only his chipped-black nail polish remaining – this vulnerability is more impressive.
The Lithuanian Club ballroom stage is only slightly raised, which is ideal as you feel like Bradson is talking and singing to only you. The presence of three musicians means that although Bradson appears alone, he very much isn't, and this is comforting. All of the music is Australian pub rock. A cover of INXS's Never Tear Us Apart in French is foreign but familiar.
Bradson's poetic writing describes scenarios in minute detail – enabling audiences to see the hospital of his birth and the sweaty bedsit he shared with his mother, rolling her cigarettes. He often punctuates his point with a well placed 'fuck', 'piss' or 'shit'.
What makes Bradson unique is that you are able to forget the outside world in his shows, emerging rejuvenated. Every note he sings has the tone of someone trying to salvage something that has been taken from them.
Running at the Lithuanian Club Ballroom until Friday 5 October
