Words by Christie Thompson
On the 22nd of October the Eventalaide crew were lucky enough to be invited to the SAFIA concert at Thebarton theatre for a night of cool listening.
The Canberra band has been all over the radio these past few years and with collaborations with huge names such as Peking Duk and Alison Wonderland, it’s easy to see why. SAFIA creatively mixes all the features we love about indie music, with electronic influences that can have an entire theatre of people in a trance within minutes.
Lead singer, Ben Woolner, didn’t falter on a single note for the entire (almost two hour) performance. His vocals are engulfing, sounding almost like a mixture between Dallas Green and Chet faker, with a special twist of his own.
The light show had some serious work put into it, tailored perfectly for every song without blinding the audience. What started as a quiet crowd soon turned vibrant, full of people totally losing themselves in bliss.
I often feel discouraged to attend gigs of bands with electronic influences in their music, purely because so many times I’ve heard the electronic features sounding weak compared to the other instruments (e.g. drums and guitar drowning out the synths). However, SAFIA totally nailed it. Everything sounded so perfect, it was easy to think you were listening to the fully polished recording, but better.
I have to take my hat off to SAFIA for this show. I hadn’t seen them live before and didn’t know what to expect, and they pulled through with easily the best show I’ve attended this year.
It’s a full ten stars from me.
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