Quality show but where was the crowd?

IT is easy to see why Australian singer/songwriter (isn’t everyone these days?) is supporting Katie Melua on her European tour for they both pride themselves on their powerful, yet harmonic vocals. A support act is taken on tour to generate and excite a crowd ahead of the headliner and this is just what Andrea achieves.

Having only turned pro this year, Andrea lacks the large-scale set list that Katie is able to boast but this does not stop her wowing the crowd at every opportunity. The quirky ‘Black Socks In the Wash,’ sang because “it happens to everyone – you put different socks in the wash and they all come out single and black,” puts smiles on the faces of the ensemble and a small voice behind perhaps sums up Andrea best – ‘she has an amazing voice, doesn’t she?’

Andrea and Katie are exact pairs. They share the same record label, they are on the same pr roster, they have similar voices and a similar gentile tone – heck, they’ve even done a song together (Dirty Dice) so it would be easy to assume she got a place on this tour by association. That may be true but after she goes out with an impressive rendition of her self-penned ‘Candle in a Chatrom,’ you see that she really does deserve to share a stage with the likes of Katie Melua.

It is a performance with grace, honesty and enthusiasm and although something of an underwhelming word – ‘nice’ really is the best way to describe Andrea. And there is little nicer act or more cunning marketing technique than hanging around the merchandise area to chat to fans and sign copies of their EP!

Despite playing to a disappointingly empty LG Arena, the latecomer’s loss really was everyone else’s gain! Opening with just Katie and her acoustic guitar, with piano also on stage, the headliner quickly switches from centre stage to her piano on the left, performing a host of slow songs that continue the theme of ‘niceness.’

Before long though, the tempo increases and the stage wall is lifted to reveal her backing band, without whom, the performance would not have been the same. A percussionist, drummer, whistle player, bassist, guitarist, pianist all made up the impressive group who matched Katie in terms of performance quality.

The real winner on the night though was by far the stagehands. Katie’s ever changing backdrop included moving boards, flashing lights, even movie clippings for ‘Mary Pickford,’ showing all artist who drew together to form united Artists: Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and David Griffith.

Watching her on television or listening to her sombre songs you are easily drawn into thinking she will be a still and sombre figure on the stage but this is definitely not the case. Katie jumps around and dances non-stop during the more upbeat ‘Crawling Up A Hill,’ during which the stage backing depicts exactly what it says on the song – a train crawling up a hill.”

At times, it is difficult to see who has the most fun – Katie or the crowd as the LG Arena quickly fills up and you can see why she was the best selling European artist of 2006. For her voce has no boundaries. From rockier numbers to soft, gentile songs like ‘If You Were a Sailboat,’ each note is hit spot on, every vocal immense. There is no bigger showing of the crowd’s enjoyment than the raucous encore she received.

And, just to make things that little bit different again, she returns with a cover of Canned Heat’s ‘On the Road Again,’ which sounds just as good with Katie’s jazzy vocals over her band’s fine playing prowess.
And she finishes just as she started with her, alone on stage to perform some slower, more sombre songs.

It is a little disappointing at the end of the night to see a half-full LG Arena leave the building, given Katie’s status and reputation but any performer would rather please a small crowd than send a full one home disappointed and pleased was just what this audience was!

By John Edden