Sydney Opera House,
Thursday July 26, 2018 :
UK’s finest folk export Ben Howard is back in Australia promoting his new album Noonday Dream, performing at two SOLD OUT shows at the iconic Sydney Opera House and I was at one of them – submerging in the musical magic of Howard’s crunchy rhythms – that indeed sounded like a steamy summer afternoon daydream.
Starting the show with the trio of singles off Noonday Dream (2018): ‘Towing The Line’, ‘A Boat To An Island On The Wall’ and ‘Nica Libres at Dusk’, Howard remained seated at the far right of the stage, slouched over his guitar, hardly lifting his eyes to the crowd, only several times switching to be standing centre stage, which seemed more suitable, considering the visuals projected behind him on white screens.
Unlike Every Kingdom and I Forget Where We Were, Noonday Dream album is less of everything, however just like the previous two records this one has that one song that makes you go: “hang on, what just happened?” and you get goosebumps, start paying more attention, snap out of your daydream, and want the repeat of what just happened. Tonight, that song was – ‘There’s Your Man’, unfortunately the song kicked everyone in the guts a little too late, it was about 10th on the set list. However, the 8 piece band truly paid off there, including the infamous surf photographer gone rockstar Mickey Smith, rocking out far right of the stage. Howard’s echoing, lingering voice completely wrapped around the concert hall, two drummers, three piece string section and three keyboards all sounded like one microorganism looping around this huge room. I swear I noticed an actual wood cutting saw on stage.
This being the Noonday Dream tour, majority of the songs on the set list were indeed off the album. Supported by beautiful visuals, flickering lights and magically ambient atmosphere. ‘Hot Heavy Summer’, a non album song that was first debuted in Melbourne sounded unfamiliar, but otherwise quite beautiful in itself. The crowd cheered and Howard was thankful. ‘Small Things’ and ‘Conrad’ off I Forget Where We Were were played in the encore, which further confirmed Howard’s main focus was to promote his latest creation and he’s done well capturing the attention of everyone at Sydney’s most coveted venue by any artist worldwide.
By the end of the show, I could imagine someone pulling my shirt in best traditions of Lewis Caroll : “Wake up Alice!”, alas my name is not Alice and a Opera House snooze would’ve been too much of a luxury, even though it was truly hard to stay awake – but in a good way!
Reviewer and Photographer : Annette Geneva
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