The Preatures Unplugged @ Chevron Gardens
w/ Abbe May
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Sunday night promised an unlikely from one of Australia’s favourite pop-rock bands – a unique, intimate, stripped back and Unplugged performance. The Preatures are known for their energetic, rocking live shows, so it was an interesting prospect – one the band themselves seemed both excited and amused by, as well as a little uncertain.
“We’re gonna do things different tonight,” said frontwoman (and tonight, subdued rock goddess) Izzi Manfredi near the start of the show. “I’m sitting down now, but that won’t last for long. Tonight is more about the songs than the schtick…. So hopefully they stack up!”
And indeed they did. While Manfredi made the statement tongue-in-cheek, there was a glimmer of nerves on display from a usually confident band who have become well-honed performers, strutting their stuff on bigger and bigger stages around the country, and the world. Along with plenty of banter and explanations of songs, this slight vulnerability and perhaps slight under-rehearsedness gave the show a more real and personal feel than any of their previous visits – and it showed that the band cared. They needn’t have worried of course, as apart from a few minor hiccups, they breezed through their set on this summery Sunday eve.
It was a night full of talented women. Earlier in the evening outside on the Garden Stage, rising local star, singer-songwriter Tanaya Harper entertained, now flanked by her new band. While inside on the Festival stage that is such a pleasure to enjoy during this month, Perth’s own rock goddess Abbe May kicked the night off with a fine set, displaying her wide range, as one of our country’s best and most genuine artists at the moment. This too was a stripped back set for her, playing an acoustic guitar backed by a simple rhythm section.
Speaking of genuine, a highlight of her set was her now standard cover of Ginuwine’s 1996 classic R&B sex jam, Pony, making it her own with a wicked guitar solo at the end. Sporting a wide brimmed hat, loose top, tight pants and sparkly boots, she cuts a mean figure and oozes attitude. As do her songs – one particular track is a literal Fuck You to a particularly malignant ex, yet it seems to have an almost joyous lilt to it. Abbe laughs in the face of adversity and apocalypse – these seem to be recurring themes for her too – with another couple of her biggest tracks being the awesome Karmageddon (sounding different in this format) and Doomsday Clock. She even played Taurus Chorus from the Design Desire album.
In retrospect The Preatures‘ music works well in the unplugged format, but it took a while for the band, and the crowd, to settle into the idea. Pretty soon however, both embraced it as a rare opportunity. With bassist Thomas Champion, Izzi and Guitarist Jack Moffitt sitting down at the front, and Luke Davison behind his kit at the back, they lacked some of that dynamic energy that’s made them a crowd favourite.
They kicked off with Girlhood – it looked like it took a real effort for Izzi to stay seated. She emanated energy, still moving and looking like a rock star in her knee-high boots, following it with a solid performance of Somebody’s Talking.
Without all the rocking out and showy performance, it gave a chance for the musicians to really focus on their instruments, and the songs to shine – strong, classic rock songwriting. Izzi’s sweet, pure voice and Moffitt’s great riffing really stands out over the tight, dynamic rhythm section.
They seemed to be enjoying themselves, smiling a lot. Manfredi and Moffitt have a great dynamic and electricity together – as the core songwriters and being in a relationship, they bounce off each other well, looking to each other for cues, and laughing when they miss them.
The show was definitely paced a lot slower than other shows, with a lot of talking in between songs, and while there wasn’t a constant high energy, the crowd seemed to hang on every word – the rambling tales were often entertaining and insightful. Izzi described how I Know A Girl was written about an ex-friend that was a toxic person whom she fell out with, while Moffitt relayed how around that time during the recording session Izzi kicked clean through a wall. She laughed it off as her ‘Italian rage’.
Izzi explained how she wanted to be a country singer and watched a lot of Clint Eastwood movies, and in fact their song Pale Rider was inspired by the movie. The boys then left the stage, for Izzi to take the spotlight and perform a couple solo numbers on the keyboard, breaking up the pace nicely. During the first track Your Fan (introduced as song she wrote for former member Gideon, and as a bit of a dig at Triple J who called some of their music ‘adult contemporary’), Izzi lost her way for a moment on the keyboard, before pulling it back together and finishing strong.
Moffitt came back out to join her, both standing close for No Way, which she seemed to sing to him. A couple new songs followed – the first one Queen Elvis (formerly The Night) was an old song Izzi wrote when she was 21, that she’d taken out, dusted off and worked on with Justin Parker, who co-wrote Video Games with Lana Del Rey.
Another new song Shangri La had a more sombre story, about the suicide of a young woman Izzi (Isabella) knew with the same name. She wrote a song a couple months later (with Johnny Took of DMAs) and then realised it was about her.
Then the rest of the band came back out to pick it up and bring it home strong. Izzi was on her feet, shimmying around the stage and playing up to the front row for Ordinary. There was talk of whispering drums, pepsi bottles, shopping and toxic femininity.
Their significant single Yanada written in collaboration with Indigenous people from Sydney and featuring lyrics sung in Dharug, went down well. And they finished the night on a high with the blissful pop of Is This How You Feel?, really rocking out the ending, like they might do on any other night. But on this night it was about holding back musically, but giving up more personally, and it was an enjoyable rare event.
ALFRED GORMAN
Photos by Linda Dunjey
