AMY SHARK @ Amplifier
w/ nyck, Lilt
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Selling out within a day of release, Amy Shark brought her highly anticipated Adore tour to Perth on Sunday night. Equal parts laid back charisma and clear excitement, it took barely a smile from the Hottest 100 runner up to set off the packed room into a daze of applause and declarations of love. Bringing along Melbourne duo nyck (pronounced n.y.c.k.) and Perth’s own Lilt to warm up, it was a solid triage of vibing electronic dosed pop to woo those end of weekend blues.
Drawing in the audience early with their cover of London Grammar’s Hey Now and a new merch t-shirt hand out, Lilt‘s sound felt a little awash in the early minutes of the set, the synths overpowering frontwoman Louise Penman’s vocals during some of the more climatic choruses. However this was fully rectified with last year’s single Wait No More as the percussion and electronica built up the vocals for the crescendo rather than competing in volume, Penman seeming to put an extra punch to the track from its usual rendition. Latest single Powerless and original favourite Tell Me had the crowd swaying.
Hearing a confession from a friend that their tunes were a little tear jerking during sound check, indie outfit nyck definitely turned the intimacy dial up a notch. Between The xx styled vocal harmonies and sparse electronic backing beats, the human element shone through as they wound up a setlist of break up songs and melancholy heartache anthems. Even though the struggle of such a minimalist approach to music was easily apparent in the buzzing of nonchalant conversations in the background, the preciseness and execution of each element let the enchantment linger. The live portion of finger clicks and clapping from Dominique Garrard highlighted the lack of live production on some of the more basic samples used, but for the sound elicited I won’t preach too hard.
With drummer and keyboardist tucked into the corner, it was clear where the focus would be directed as Amy Shark appeared on stage. Starting off with a story about her concern when the show was first booked, joking, “This guy thinks people are going to know my music in Perth?” before thanking all the “beautiful angel faces” revealed Perth played a big part in the Hottest 100 votes pitched in for Adore.
Kicking off the set it was quickly evident that Shark could do no wrong, the crowd lapping up each song with cheers or enthusiastic singalongs for tracks like Spits on Girls, a particularly boisterous pair regularly sending out affirmations of “F*%# yeah!”
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Living up to her promise of taking the time to talk about what inspires her writing (largely the recurring theme of disastrous heart encounters), Shark was endearing to say the least while keeping it light with some cheeky humour. Spinning off a stripped back version of Deleted, she then played a tune she described her first, and favourite, song ever, conceding it would most likely never be recorded. Called You Think I Think I Sound Like God, it was a particular highlight, opening with a delicate solo delivery before exploding into a crashing instrumental epic. If it was available I would no doubt stick it on repeat.
Reaching out to the crowd, Adore finally closed the set, acting as more of the cherry on top of a great set rather than the one hit wonder patiently waited for. The whole venue seemed to beeline for the merch desk afterwards, an orderly line forming for the chance to say hey and grab a selfie with the headliner. As genuine as you’d expect from such emotionally inspired music, I don’t think there were any fans that left disappointed on Sunday night.
STEPH PAYTON
Photos by Michael Franz
