Presented by Adelaide Festival
Reviewed 11 March 2020
Aria-winner and a Rolling Stone Woman of the Year for her contribution to culture, Clare Bowditch brings her infectious energy, powerful vocals and lively personality to The Workshop at this year’s Adelaide Festival.
As she walks confidently on-stage, the crowd is filled with cheers and applause for the songstress – a clearly long-standing set of fans for Bowditch who has been gathering fans in Australia and internationally for over fifteen years. Welcoming the audience with her warm personality, silly humour and infectious laughter, the theatre is filled with a warmth that only Bowditch can provide.
Throughout the night, the Australian singer performs what she calls “some old and some gold” (which really characterises all of her songs) and also blesses the audience with some newer songs, including some from her latest 2020 album. This array of songs provides the audience with a range of contrasting sounds, from the drama and building tension, paired with a faster tempo, found in Start of War to the slow and sorrowful, almost haunting and witchy ballad of Strange Questions.
Some songs focus more on an up-beat folk/pop sound such as One Little River with its “ohhh oh!” chorus, while others have a recognisable slight country-twang, especially the guitar string plucking in her newest single in seven years – Woman. For a bit of fun, towards the end of the performance Bowditch also covered another popular Australian songstress, Kylie Minogue, as she puts her own vocal spin on the hit Can’t Get You Out of My Head.
She’s accompanied on stage by her band which includes husband (who’s also her manager) on drums, both lead and bass guitarists, a keyboard player and an incredible violinist who absolutely steals the show at one point with her speedy-paced violinist solo in the hit song (which helped propel Bowditch to fame), Fall At Your Feet.
One of the most beautiful parts of Bowditch’s music are the emotive and relatable lyrics. In person, these are even more powerful as the emotion the lyricist felt while writing them is still evident in her facial expressions and body-language while she performs them. She covers a rage of themes that come from her personal life experience, like fighting for body-positivity, soul-crushing heart ache and even a song she wrote about all-consuming love for the TV show, Offspring. Another enjoyable part of seeing Bowditch live is her vivacious and exuberant personality that lights up the entire theatre. She appears genuinely excited to entertain the audience with her lyrics and songs, but also with her jokes, humour and personal stories. Not only is this popular Australian songstress a multi-talented musician, but she’s also a broadcaster, author, actor and speaker and during her show she talks to the audience a bit about these varying jobs and the roles they play within her life and her music.
If you’re a Clare Bowditch fan, seeing her live is truly an un-missable event as her on-stage (and what can be imagined as real-life) personality play a large role in her songs and it’s worth treating yourself to a fun night of laughter, energy and beautiful songs next time she’s in town.
Reviewed by Georgina Smerd
Rating out of 5: 4
One Night Only – Season Ended
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