The Small Ballroom, Newcastle
Thursday October 10th, 2013 :
There’s always one way to tell a performer is still down to earth. They’ll be the one on stage before the show has even begun, doing their own final sound check of their instruments. Andy Bull is one of these genuine guys. From the moment he stepped on the Small Ballroom stage, Bull exuded a sense of ease in front of the audience, as if he was just playing in front of friends.
A regular on the Australian touring circuit, Bull has carved a name for himself since he first supported Lisa Mitchell in 2009. This time he was back to tour his own self-produced hit single ‘Baby I Am Nobody Now,’ and looked every bit at home on stage in front of the small but enthused crowd that turned out on Thursday night.
Kicking off the night with a synth-soaked slow burner (a fresh track, he tells the crowd), Andy Bull began by saying that he just wanted to “paint a picture” for the audience with his old and new songs alike. He launched into his 2010 collaboration with Lisa Mitchell, ‘Dog’, early on in the set, with the part of Mitchell played by his male guitarist doing his best attempt at her ethereal female voice.
Songs from his Phantom Pains EP made an appearance as well, but it was really his radio-friendly singles (’Keep on Running’ and ‘Baby I Am Nobody Now’) that made the biggest impact on the crowd. The Tears for Fears classic ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ (a song he covered for Triple J’s Like a Version in 2011) was an instant crowd-swayer, and you could see from the minute he began playing, he got lost in it. This was a man that was really enjoying his time on stage, and the look on his face as he played the keyboard (an unusual lead instrument for a male vocalist) was nothing but ecstasy.
But it wasn’t just the songs that really made this gig enjoyable. What really tipped this one over was Andy Bull’s stage banter in between that showed just how real this guy is. He won the crowd over with one story about his early career, where people would often comment on his distinctive falsetto voice. His reply? “It’s ok, I have a huge dick. God takes with one hand and gives with the other.” His introduction to ‘My Street’, a song about his ex-girlfriend moving in down the road from him, got some great crowd response to Bull’s lyrics (one guy in the back yelling “fuck the girl!”). It takes a unique performer to be able to break down that barrier, but Bull made it seem effortless.
After a one hour set, he ended without encore – props to Bull for choosing not to indulge in a staged reappearance. As he left the stage, he invited everyone to come up and say ‘hi’ and sure enough, he was in the middle of the crowd a minute later just talking to everyone. If nothing else, everyone there would have left that show feeling like they just heard their mate Andy play on stage.
Reviewer: Shelby Houghton
Photographer: Jessie Reid
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