Review: Amy Shark at Kings Park and Botanic Garden

Amy Shark at Kings Park and Botanic Garden
w/ Culture Wars, Fool Nelson
Saturday, November 2, 2024

“That’s it, I’m moving to Perth!”

Clearly, we adore her. Nearly 4,000 punters lit up Kings Park and tested the noise restrictions, shouting along to the bridge hook of perennially popular debut hit Adore: “Watch me, watch him talk to girls/ I’m known as a right-hand slugger/ Anybody else wanna touch my lover?”

Fans on the deck held up bespoke “We adore you” signs, as the Gold Coast native added, “I’m particularly emotional tonight because this is the last night of the tour,” giving the emo-pop highlight extra weight.

On the back of August’s short and sweet Sunday Sadness album, she made it through eight of that record’s tracks, plenty of greatest hits, and even an inadvisable cover of Black Eyed Peas’ Where is the Love? in the encore.

(Winning a Logie for being lovable on Australian Idol doesn’t empower one to take bad covers on the road, Amy.)

None of the new tracks were better than show opener Two Friends, with its hilarious middle eight:

“Sarah told Becky
And Becky told Tegan
And Tegan told Sophie
And Sophie’s friends with Krystal
And Krystal told Sally
And Sally loves Daniel
And Daniel told Katie
Now Katie fucking hates me…”

Something about that last line’s subtle self-loathing elicits a perfect Amy Shark moment, where biting your bottom lip and feeling all kinds of uncalled-for guilt feels like the only way forward. Shouted back at her in the November rain, it got the night off to a terrific start.

Recent hit single Can I Shower at Yours also dropped early, alongside equally familiar faves Only Wanna Be With You and All Loved Up. Beautiful Eyes was a popular singalong and came with a nice little anecdote about Shark’s Kiwi mother-in-law, reminding us she’s as charismatic with a story as a song.

Yes, the fireworks and confetti were dialled back plenty from the spectacular RAC Arena show supporting last album Cry Forever, but this reviewer missed the visceral feels of Psycho and Amy Shark (the song) more. Surely their incisive lyrics would’ve gone down a treat in the intimate outdoor surrounds, and if she needs to drop a track, perhaps next time the Ed Sheeran and Keith Urban collab Love Songs Ain’t For Us would be a better choice (#yawn).

The sad girl intimate moments did come care of Worst Day of My Life, and later a real treat in debut single Spits on Girls segueing into Sunday Sadness and closer Our Time Together to end the main set. Played completely solo, this main set finale was a huge highlight, illustrating Shark’s raw, lyrical strengths better than anything else on the night.

Earlier, local upstarts Fool Nelson rose above their bad pun band name to continue a run of successful supports that’s already included the likes of Ball Park Music and Old Mervs. They were certainly more impressive than hotly anticipated international opener Culture Wars, who were given the full support band treatment with a terrible sound mix (where were the vocals?). The Austin, Texas, outfit came with plenty of hype on the back of catchy, commercial radio single Heaven but failed to deliver any energy or enthusiasm.

Peaking in the encore, Amy Shark saved her oldest uptempo hits for the end, proving that for all the recent pop smarts, it’s still these angsty hits of old that fans love most.

I Said Hi and Mess Her Up were massive highlights to close. With energy on high and feeling all the feels, it almost felt premature when the lights came up after Shark did her best to destroy the stage during the latter.

She’s welcome to come back and mess us up anytime.

HARVEY RAE

Photos by Linda Dunjey