Entertainment

A Night of Pure Joy

Spirits were high in our humble little city of Adelaide, for the second SOLD OUT night at Thebarton Theatre, where the hit sensation Vance Joy played.

Spirits were high in our humble little city of Adelaide, for the second SOLD OUT night at Thebarton Theatre, where the hit sensation Vance Joy played. Joined with opening acts such as Didirri and Cub Sport, he took to the stage at 9pm.

Melbourne’s Didirri warmed the crowd up with a smooth set of his original folk music and a mesmerising story or two about his musical journey through life. The theatre began to fill up as made his way through his set, capturing the attention of the audience and drawing them to the front of the room. As he neared the end of his set, the anticipation in the room was palpable, the audience buzzing with excitement for the acts to follow.

Next up were the incredible four piece alt pop group Cub Sport, who kept the crowd grooving with their cool combination of sounds. The crowd was getting more excited by the minute as they performed their original and unique mix of synth and mellow rock tunes, accompanied by electronic drums (Dan Puusaari). The guitarist, Zoe Davis, kept on rocking her riffs on a Fender Telecaster with an absolute array of pedals at her perusal, which stayed true and consistent to their lingering ambient sound throughout the set. At some points, she switched to a more suitable synth pad, which was absolutely lovely.

The singer of the group, Tim Nelson, was reminiscent of a young Backstreet Boys member from yesteryear, who floated gracefully around the stage, almost in slow-motion.

There was a special announcement about half way through the groups amazing performance, which was about two of the members (Tim Nelson and Sam Netterfield) recent marriage, and the crowd cheered in support. The song that followed after featured a fair amount of auto tune in the mix, which added a nice wobbly sound at some times but at others, was almost a tad too powerful.

They then premiered a new song called Sometimes which was the first time they ever played the track to a crowd. It featured an old dance sounding synth progression, that sounded somewhat familiar but also fresh, it then progressed into a real catchy banger! What a highly emotive performance!

They ended on a mellow note with no more bold statements and a sudden exit, leaving the stage casually, and leaving the crowd that was eagerly anticipating more music to continue, as soon as humanly possible.

It was interesting to see the mixed response and effects of Cub Sport’s not-so-shocking announcement to the very mixed crowd. Some parents and older members of the audience seemed concerned, most were supportive and cheered, some were unaffected by the news.

After a brief lacking moment, Vance Joy kicked off on a mellow note and with a strong blinding light piercing from behind him, which truly made for an angelic introduction to his set. It looked like an angel was before us in the audience. Song highlights included fan favourites such as Mess is Mine.

He strummed along with precision as the acoustics of the room reflected the sound perfectly, meanwhile, girls in the crowd screamed out I love you to one up the friends by their side, surely this was for the second night in a row.

He then gave a heartfelt speech after about the first time he ever performed in Adelaide with his band back in 2015, and reflected on when times are great with a new song called Like Gold which featured the lyrics ‘Time to let go, you won’t let go of me’. A different guitar was bought out for this song which was changed repeatedly thereafter for every song change.

This was followed by a humble speech about enjoying the finer things in life before playing Take Your Time which is about a couple who their phone’s down for a moment, and just enjoy each other’s company while having a little dance in the kitchen.

He spoke modestly about his songwriting and the line ‘Everything is fine when your head’s resting next to mine‘ before playing Fire and the Flood.

There was an almost stand up comedy act before performing From Afar as Vance came across as a truly humble and genuine soul, opening up to and inviting the audience into a glimpse of his honest life.

A Ukulele was ushered out afterwards, followed by a story about the writing of Little Boy and how he wrote it about hooning on his mountain bike and one day losing control and flying over the handlebars, knocking himself out and being rescued by a lady who took him to the hospital. He was disappointed about his missing tooth not being turned in.

He then played Bonnie and Clyde and One of These Days, and We’re Going Home before giving a big shout out to Didirri , as well as Cub Sport. The ukulele was then brought out for Riptide a huge fan favourite. Almost every member of the audience was singing along with passion, and the vibe in the room was absolutely electric.

He finished off his mind blowing set with Lay It On Me and Saturday Sun, shouting out to Thebarton Theatre. His fans bid him farewell with a thunderous round of applause, sad that the show was over, but very happy with how it had gone.

The merch stall was impressive, with blankets, which sold out very quickly, as well as hats, shirts, hoodies, vinyl records and CDs, Didirri even had a tea towel available, possibly targeted at the parents in the audience.

Overall, the show was on that punters won’t forget any time soon, with exceptional performances by all of the artists. If you missed out this time, don’t worry. You can follow all of the artists on social media or via their websites to keep up to date with what they’re doing, and find out when they will be playing a show near you.

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