Small Ballroom, Newcastle
Thursday August 22, 2013 :
Josh Pyke is no stranger to Newcastle, and evidently Newcastle is no stranger to Josh Pyke with not ticket left in sight for Thursday’s sold-out stopover on his highly anticipated The Beginning and The End Of Everything Tour. After spending the past few months relishing the new album, I was quite interested to hear how it shaped up live… entering The Small Ballroom with high hopes and little doubt, somehow Pyke still managed to exceed my every expectation.
First to warm the stage was Melbourne-based darling Olympia who’s nifty use of a loop pedal and exquisitely glacial vocal had my swift attention; reminiscent of Fiest with just delectable dash of The Jezabels. A curious crowd began to gather around in awe of the extraordinary dreamscape sounds this pint sized mega-babe concocted.
Up next Sydney-based folkmen Patrick James. Now imagine that Marcus Mumford and Boy & Bear front-man Dave Hosking miraculously created a child, which was conceived in an old blues bar over a bottle of Glenfiddich single-malt Whiskey. The end result would be Patrick James. With the crowd now swarming, James gave off some witty banter telling stories of banjo player Scott living on his apartment floor and awaking to find him half naked most mornings, and luring the crowds attention to drummer Joe’s freakish resemblance of Jim Carrey, but ultimately James and his band of merry men enchanted the crowd with their humble folk sound, and impressive array of instrumentation shifting between guitar, banjo, and to my absolute delight, the taking to the keys for ‘Brighter Lights’, ‘Kings & Queens’ and a stellar cover of James Taylor’s ‘Carolina In My Mind’.
A brief stage rearrangement and it was time for Pykey, who opened with the pulchritudinous haunting of ‘Goldmines’ before launching into ‘Memories & Dust’ and ‘Forever Song”. Naturally the newer tracks soon began to follow, with title track, ‘The Beginning and The End Of Everything’ and ‘Haunt You Love’ as the crowd got a little less vocal and a little more attentive as Pyke unleashed his current works into the very souls of a swooning audience. I tip my hat to Pyke for his consistently well constructed set listing; there is always a welcomed number of back-catalogue visits greeted with a vigorous mix of the new, highlighting the commendable journey of a burgeoning career spanning 10 years in existence.
Working with a venue as intimate as the aptly named Small Ballroom, there was little room to make an encore exit and re-entrance, but Pyke in his quintessential facetious fashion made the most of the space, requesting the house lights to be dimmed until all that was left in sight was the silhouette of a bearded scarecrow looming in the darkness… before long the house lights were back on and a delighted crowd we’re soon chiming along the well-acquainted wonders of ‘Middle Of The Hill’. A now solo Pyke reached out to take his 12-string off the stand, and loop pedal at the ready; I instantly new what was in store… easing into the blissful 12-string fumble and dulcet layering of ‘Bug Eyed Beauty’. Now, if anyone can fuck up a song and still make it an illustriously spine-tingling experience, it’s Josh Pyke… and besides what is a genuine live music experience without a few hiccups along the way, especially with Pyke’s genuine knack of taking a looping mistake and making it work in his honorable favor, leaving “I fucked that up… this is my worst nightmare!” to bellow through the room sending the crowd into a fit of laughter. An amiable Pyke soon redeemed himself and carried on a euphonious moment of harmonic delight; A Pyketastic ending to a night of pure Pykefection.
Reviewer: Chloe Webb
Photographer: Glen Pearson
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