Newcastle Town Hall
Friday August 22, 2014 :
When a duo consisting of an acoustic guitar and keyboard takes to the stage, something special is about to happen. With such a compact outfit there is nowhere to hide. Wearing a leather skirt, red lipstick and what looked like a bowl of fruit on her head, Kate Miller-Heidke owned the full house. There were no drums, no bass, and you could hear a pin drop in the venue. Miller-Heidke’s voice is unique and appealing as evidenced by her countless fans. Accompanying Miller-Heidke on stage was her talented husband Keir Nuttal providing an acoustic experience to this truly unique voice. The loud clapping soon made way to the haunting opener, ‘Devil Suit’, leaving the full house mesmerised by the artist’s vocal repertoire.
Moving promptly to the comfort of her keyboards, ‘Politics’ picked up the tempo. You can’t help thinking for a classical trained artist with appropriate degrees to boot, Miller-Heidke looks at home in the modern music arena. This maybe due to the fact that she has been kicking around with bands in her hometown of Brisbane for over ten years. Kate Miller-Heidke is quirky, listening to the words of her song ‘Loose my Shit’ almost reminded me of my teenage years going gaga over the next best thing at school, a wonderful trip back in time for me, thank you.
It’s also nice to see this artist is well rounded with an obvious social conscience who is willing to put pertinent issues out there for everyone to hear. Her analogy of the song ‘Caught in the Crowd’ touches on the topic of school yard bullying. Telling the audience the story of a child wanting to use the song at school but feeling uncomfortable about the word sex being in it. A look at the mixed crowd present on the night discloses Miller-Heidke crosses all age groups with the very young singing next to the, well, not so young.
Having settled in for the evening, the requested sing along to ‘O Vertigo’ had a the audience joining in. Kate Miller-Heidke’s smile could at times be mistaken for a trouble maker, almost in a larrikin way. Her cheekiness makes her uniquely Australian, classical, operatic and unique, now where does that fit in today’s society? Who cares, I loved her and so did the crowd. Don’t leave it so long to come back, Newcastle welcomes you.
Reviewer and Photographer: David Jackson
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