Review: Katy Steele at Rosemount Hotel

Katy Steele at Rosemount Hotel
w/ Anna Schneider
Friday, May 29, 2026

Local light and former Little Birdy frontwoman Katy Steele completed her national tour for her latest release, Undressed, in the intimate, familiar surrounds of the Rosemount Hotel. With an album full of delicate acoustic covers, a set almost equally split between her newest material and older material, and a venue packed with family, friends, and hometown fans, this cool winter evening blazed with a warm and comfortable authenticity.

Opening for the night was Fremantle’s Anna Schneider, who started her set with an a cappella cover of Darrell Glenn’s Crying in the Chapel, an outstanding statement of intent that showcased the power of her voice to its fullest extent.

At certain points, the gathering audience and their underlying buzz almost overwhelmed the performance, yet at other times, Schneider had moments that cut through the crowd noise as easily as a butter knife, with even the bar queue reduced to whispers.

With a spectacular voice, fantastic musicality, and quirky, heartfelt lyrics that all but bled with their raw honesty, Schneider could very well be on the cusp of the next major steps in her career. On the evidence of tonight’s outing, all the ingredients required were readily apparent, with merely another pace or two forward perhaps needed for the pieces to fully click into place.

After a twenty-minute break between support and headliner, Katy Steele ascended the Rosemount main stage with a decidedly stripped-down aesthetic to play with. Not quite a fully unplugged set—the equipment appeared to remain electrified—the instruments tonight were a guitar, a keyboard, and that distinctive, unmistakable voice.

Steele introduced her compadre on the keys tonight, Melbourne’s Jesse James—yes, his real name—and advised the audience that she still felt nervous before every performance, even after all these years. She thanked the crowd for coming out in celebration of her latest album, explaining that the original plan was to reinterpret various parts of her own catalogue for it. However, the brief had expanded to include other seminal pieces important to her, which had given the overall project a very much personalised mixtape vibe.

Channelling the creative spark that still burnt bright, Steele advised she had called this latest album Volume One. If there were further public appetite, she would love to continue the series and asked tonight’s audience which songs they would like to hear in future editions. She realised that the request may have been a mistake when Wonderwall and Summer of 69 were shouted back from the cheap seats, but she humoured both suggestions with the widest grin.

She presented her solo piece Rescue Boat as the only song from potentially several albums’ worth of material that had survived her five-year sojourn to New York City. In a metropolis where arguably anything was possible, Steele had become overwhelmed and depressed, as she had used her creative energy of that time in every direction at once, which left very little in reserve for herself.

With that backstory provided, the song itself was an achingly realised dissertation on isolation, survival, and resilience, every word and nearly every vowel seemingly measured in full before they left Steele’s mouth.

To the mixtape aspect of the latest album, Lou Reed’s Perfect Day and Patti Smith’s Because the Night were spectacular choices that absolutely felt in their correct place amongst Steele’s voice, range, and the stories she was telling. There was one cover from the album that she had not yet sung live, fearful she would screw it up, but being both the end of the tour and a hometown gig, the evening was as perfect an opportunity as any to bring forward The Smiths’ There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

Steele explained that, for her, the song signposted every heightened emotion during one’s teenage years, especially those related to alienation. She took on board the massive responsibility that this track meant to so many people. Alone on stage, guitar swapped for keyboard, Steele’s entire soul seemed to pour into each note as the crowd remained hushed, aware they were in the presence of something very special.

The dam broke, catharsis was attained, and the audience gave this singular performance the most sustained applause of the entire night. Still speaking to her nerves, Steele stated there had been a few bum notes in the mix, but if that were indeed the case, those in attendance forgave her multiple times over.

Having conquered that final boss from Undressed, with a spring in her step and a visible fire in her eyes, Steele mixed it up further with another cover not on the album but one that she occasionally played live, Britney’s … Baby, One More Time. As hushed as the audience was with The Smiths’ previous cover, the exact opposite reaction occurred—boisterous, animated, and belting out the lyrics at the top of their voices. The shared alchemy between artist and crowd, together in that moment, was an utter triumph, full of swagger.

The evening ended on what appeared to be a very deliberate circle back to the beginnings of Little Birdy, with 2003’s Relapse. A track written while Steele was still in her teens, inclusive of all those heightened emotions mentioned earlier in the set, the song stunningly and surprisingly encompassed the maturity to easily speak both to and for the artist as they were this very night, however many years later.

Steele provided a set stripped back in both instrumentation and emotion, a performance that was relaxed and comfortable, yet at various times put her raw and jagged heart on display. Fiercely supported by a hometown crowd that enthusiastically took on board her suggestion of artist chats and merch purchases after the show, tonight was a wonderful showcase for Steele—may she get sufficient inspiration for Undressed: Volume Two or any other project in the very near future.

PAUL MEEK

Photos by Linda Dunjey