Live Review: Weyes Blood

Oh so sweet, yet oh so short, Weyes Blood tantalised Sydney Festival audience members with a brief-yet-engaging performance. New Yorker Natalie Mering made haste while the sun sank behind the Sydney skyline and a carnival of sensations took hold.

The creator of two spellbinding albums, 2014's The Innocents and last year's Front Row Seat To Earth, Mering showcased her understated quirk and elegant candour while unfurling lilting melodies, sorrowful love songs and heartrending elegiac ballads.

The backlighting met with the organ on songs like Seven Words, which resulted in a sombre catharsis - the lyrics of regret, longing and acceptance making for a confessional display. Then the lights began to dance across the billowing ceiling of the Spiegeltent in hues of mauve and emerald.

Mering's music is archetypally folk, her lyrics simple and full of longing. Her chord progressions and vocal impressions reminiscent of folk legend Joan Baez, her finger picking style a nod to Joni Mitchell. Like Buffy Saint-Marie and those previously mentioned, Mering combines these elements to speak of her present in a relatable and direct way. She also integrates more recent technology, loops and synths to modernise this antique folk sound.

Cameos from infamous Sydneysider Kirin J Callinan and "another very special wild cowboy" named Tex proved a vibrant and kooky touch to this Sydney Festival show, assisting Mering in making a mark on her inaugural trip to the Southern Hemisphere.

Weyes Blood entangles you in a world of '70s folk music, sun-streaked and weathered by the hush of the Pacific. The music is inherently retro, derivative and contrived, yet honestly so. It is this paradox that makes Weyes Blood so palatable. What more poignant way to cap off this atmospheric, evocative and nostalgic show than with a cover of Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow?