Live Review: Youngsmith

Tonight at West End's Bearded Lady sat Dan Smith, a man with a guitar and a bunch of ballads up his sleeve.

Otherwise branded as Youngsmith, this seemed a half-set marking the opening of Smith's REDemption tour. Before travelling over state lines with his guitar case, the Brisbane-based singer/songwriter sat strumming away to a house full of friends and family on a Wednesday night.

He opened up with I Am Truly Lost and Everybody's Hero off his Light EP as well as new tracks Wither and big-hitter Red — the latter a sweet ditty about his auburn girlfriend which, after its May release date, took on a life of its own on the national radio circuit reaching the US through KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles, San Diego, Ridgecrest and Santa Barbara, California.

In the wood-panelled hallway bar of the Bearded Lady, the bitters and red flowed as did a weird little concoction of Jameson and gherkins. And the souled-out rock of Youngsmith made for a warm winter's night in, the wordsmith riding out high on the Pearl Jam classic Last Kiss punctuated with a howling rendition of Eddie Vedder's crooning. Youngsmith showed promise to the real side of holistic songwriting and playing music straight from the hip and right from the heart. He knows how to make one of those nights made for memories.