Review: Vera Blue at The Rechabite
Vera Blue at The Rechabite
w/ Jem Cassar-Daley
Friday, August 28, 2026
Acclaimed multi-genre contemporary artist Vera Blue landed in the west on Friday night to wrap up her Modern Rituals tour in front of a packed and very enthusiastic Rechabite crowd, her fans spilling all the way up to the venue’s second balcony. This Perth concert also coincided with the day her new album made its actual chart debut, attaining a No. 3 position on the ARIA Australian artists’ list.
Supporting Blue this evening was Jem Cassar-Daley, in the process of releasing her debut album this very same day, a project so new her mum didn’t even have a copy, but with plenty available for purchase or signature at the merch desk. Slated to return to Perth in a few weeks with her full band, tonight Cassar-Daley played solo, switching between either keyboard or acoustic guitar as each song required.
Her tracks most clearly came across as singer-songwriter confessionals, each aching with their own jagged authenticity, and covered relationships from the points of view of heartbreak, self-doubt, and even literal boredom. Cassar-Daley stated she had placed every break-up trope she could think of into Cliches, one of the highlights of the set, and provided an excellent, bittersweet cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time.
With a solid if slightly sombre playlist this evening, one looks forward to how Cassar-Daley will integrate her wider band into the mix. The tracks contained some fabulous lyrics, and, after being kept in Dropbox so long before their public release, more live outings will no doubt give these songs additional space to evolve and breathe.
After the stage crew placed the finishing touches on the physical set, best described as a series of rippling fabric boxes with colours alternated pre-performance between electric blues and fluorescent pinks, Vera Blue came before the audience, ascending a podium behind the gauzy drapes. Costumed as if a Tudor queen attending a funeral, Blue struck a pose in the best art-rock tradition as her band played an overture before she launched into the breathy modern electropop of Brittle Wings.
With her presence and voice both powerful enough to fill any space and an ability to successfully dabble across almost any genre, Blue is a singular talent on the national scene yet also wears her multiple influences very close to the surface. Various shades of her forebears could almost be heard in the margins of her works, whether it be from Florence and the Machine, Kate Bush, or through to Portishead and the other trip-hoppers, most notably across the trio of songs In the Corner, Mended and Private.
Blue also held this evening’s audience in the very palm of her hand, the crowd rapt and expectant throughout the entire gig. Singalongs, loud cheers, and giddy exclamations of joy were a near constant, and the crowd’s dancing gained rhythm, tempo, and critical mass as the night progressed.
Blue next brought some of her older tracks to the fore, to the fans’ utter delight. Settle and Howl from 2017 album Perennial were played back-to-back, received by The Rechabite with deep love and some of the loudest audience singing of the night. Go Lucky brought the polished dance sheen of the late nineties, whilst Lady Powers was far more primal, as Blue again ascended the podium, this time like a go-go dancer, with both the song and overall performance displaying funk and groove galore.
A literal tornado of energy, Blue all but launched herself into the front rows during Regular Touch before thanking all and sundry multiple times, from Perth in general and tonight’s audience, to the venue crew and her tour staff, with especial acknowledgement to her backing musicians, drummer Dave Jenkins and keyboardist Ross James, who had been on stage with Blue the majority of the concert’s runtime.
Returning quickly for the encore, Blue brought out two classic covers, the first being Jolene from the late Dolly Parton, played straight down the line with only an electric guitar as accompaniment. At several points during this heartfelt tribute, the audience volume almost overwhelmed that of the artist.
The second cover was of Radiohead’s Creep, given the triple j Like a Version treatment by Blue just a few weeks ago, in the lead-up to her current tour. Beginning with one of the loudest cheers from the audience all night, the track was teased as a sweet piano ballad before Blue let her fabulous vocal range absolutely rip into the work. Her backing artists stepped away from their regular instruments and cranked the guitar hero vibes up to either eleven or eleven thousand, producing a magnificent, ethereal wall of sound.
The evening ended with the crowd clamouring for more, yet heartily sated with what they had been provided, with Blue’s performance near enough an absolute force of nature. Perth can hardly wait for her return, whenever that may occur, and to passionately embrace whichever music style she next deigns to deconstruct and rebuild effortlessly.
PAUL MEEK
Photos by Linda Dunjey
