Bar on the Hill, Newcastle
Friday 17 May 2024
Reviewer / Photographer : Jo Forster
The trek up the M1 to Newcastle and navigating the rabbit warren of the Newcastle Uni Campus to The Bar On The Hill was well and truly rewarded when we entered the capacity crowd already listening intently to opening act Annie-Rose Malony as she filled the room with a warm ambience, setting the tone beautifully for main act, Angie McMahon. The two piece guitar duo had everyone’s attention, quietly but confidently carrying the audience through their set filled with semi acoustic guitar and emotive vocals.
A short reprieve allowed the all-female crew to attend to the finishing touches transforming the stage to allow for a full band to accompany the award winning headline act that is Angie McMahon.
Dressed in Doc Martens and an oversize Janis Joplin t-shirt, you could be forgiven for thinking Angie was a student at the Uni, but the second she greeted her audience, strummed her guitar and her vocals rang out, there was no question Angie was indeed the act that had filled the room to capacity. At the start of her mostly sold out headline Australia/New Zealand tour celebrating the release of her latest album; Light, Dark, Light Again (which followed two shows at the iconic Sydney Opera House and The Tivoli in Brisbane), the set was filled with favourite tracks from her debut album Salt as well as the latest offering.
Angie’s lyrics are best described as tales of love, loss, elation, self-reflection, and environmental themes which completely bely her young age of just twenty years old. Her songs show incredible emotional maturity and tell stories of experiences that would usually be representative of someone well beyond her years. The deep tonality of her voice is unmistakable and again, trick your ears into assuming she is at least a couple of decades older than the young adult that stood before us on stage.
The opening track ‘Fireball Whisky’ had the room passionately singing along and fittingly so given the number of Fireballs that have likely been consumed in the Newcastle bar. Wall to wall punters were clearly all huge fans of her complete catalogue of tunes and this was none more apparent than in hearing the crowd singing along to every word of each track that followed. The experiences and feelings represented in her music very much span the generations – the Bar on the Hill attendees last night were very much a mix of Gen Z right through to Baby Boomers.
Already having garnered incredible success after just two studio albums, I have no doubt that we have only just skimmed the surface of this incredibly gifted young woman. I can’t imagine how much deeper and provocative her songwriting will become once she has more years, life experiences and challenges under her belt.
