The PreaturesIt's pretty rare that you get to experience an A-grade rock show in South Bank Parklands right by the Brisbane River, but the Commonwealth Games has finally given Brisbane something worth getting excited over: Festival 18.
Plenty of juicy acts have graced this stage over the past fortnight, but to put a cherry on top of an already ripper line-up of acts, pop-rock stars The Preatures end proceedings on the penultimate night at South Bank Parklands.
Opening with the raucous noise of Girlhood and frontwoman Isabella Manfredi immediately has everyone in the palm of her hand, sliding onto the stage in an outfit reminiscent of legendary frontwoman Chrissy Amphlett of Divinyls. The crowd react like it's a Taylor Swift gig, but they are all going wild for the coolest woman in Aussie rock.
Wasting no time before jumping into another huge track, the opening jangle of Somebody's Talking gets an already-audible crowd into fever pitch. They cruise through Magick and I Know A Girl with ease as the crowd is put into a trance by the dance moves of Manfredi.
As if Manfredi's moves weren't enough on their own, soon water is added to the equation and the stage begins to resemble a scene from Flashdance. While the Commonwealth Games may be wrapping up ceremonies with the medals all seemingly accounted for, there is one last gold that needs to be awarded to Manfredi for blowing her voice out the previous night at a festival in Perth, but still hitting every note tonight as if nothing happened. It's an especially impressive feat when the band leave the stage to give the singer the sole spotlight as she sits at the piano for a moving rendition of Your Fan.
An obvious highlight of the set is the funky singalong of Is This How You Feel? when Manfredi busts out every move in her repertoire, including callbacks to the one and only Peter Garrett. Soon the crowd trades moves with Manfredi and by the end of the song all of South Bank is having a good ol' boogie.
Ending the set with crowd-favourite Yanada comes as no surprise, but the absolutely monstrous jam that follows is a very welcome shock. More than anything, this set solidifies The Preatures as rockstars and one of the best live acts going around at the moment. But, to put it simply, they are just bloody cool.
