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Live Review: ARIA Week: Universal Music Presents… Megan Washington, Broods, Just A Gent

Melissa Borg

A mixed bag of talented acts couldn't quite muster the vibe to conquer the audience's mixed feelings.

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The stunning Megan Washington was the first to showcase her wonderful talents, kicking off her set with upbeat numbers Who Are You and Limitless. Washington and her brilliant band seemed to enjoy playing this set for the audience, as well as playing it up for the multiple cameras, but much of the crowd just kept talking quite loudly throughout their set.

Begin Again momentarily slowed down the pace of the set, and it was nothing short of moving, with Washington recreating the anguish of the song through her movements and ethereal vocals. A cover of Kanye West’s Runaway grabbed the audience’s attention and got a few more people interested in the set, just before they finished up with danceable My Heart Is A Wheel.

New Zealand’s Broods were the second act to take to the stage, starting their set with popular Bridges; however, their performance of it was fairly disappointing. Everytime and Sober were better, but the constant use of vocal effects overlaying singer Georgia Nott’s clean vocals drowned her out and became disorientating to listen to at times. A much-needed change in pace for the set was given with Your Walls, which featured Nott going solo with just clean vocals and a keyboard, but the performance lacked impact due to minimal audience engagement. They closed their set with radio favourite Mother & Father.

The room emptied before 17-year-old Just A Gent came on stage to play his DJ set wearing his top hat and tuxedo. Playing quite a few Australian tunes got some of the crowd dancing, but most treated it as background music to their conversations — not exactly the response one would expect by putting the DJ on last at a party.

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Boasting a mixed crowd of industry folk and competition winners in a lavish venue, and short sets from the live acts, the Across The Universe party came off feeling more like a talent showcase. The clear split between those who came to see the live music and those who didn’t meant the atmosphere felt disjointed, and that the party fell short of hitting the mark to kick off ARIA Week.