A stand-out ethereal vibe
CONCERT REVIEW HARVEY RAE
Julia Holter
4 stars
Chevron Festival Gardens
Monday, February 10
She might have performed to a modest Monday night crowd but Julia Holter's Perth Festival showcase will be tough to top at this season's Festival Gardens.
The Los Angeles singer-songwriter's band has expanded to a five-piece since her last Australian appearance at St Jerome's Laneway Festival last year. The addition of Danny Meyer on tenor sax and Andrew Tholl on violin has fleshed out the live sound considerably.
Combined with Christopher Votek delivering a mix of picked basslines and bowed washes on cello, and Corey Fogel's atmospheric drumming and backing vocals, the band built gentle walls of sound using almost exclusively acoustic instruments - Holter's keyboard was the only electric instrument.
Arriving on stage to the gorgeous Kronos Quartet cover of Sigur Ros' Flugufrelsarinn, Holter wasted no time kicking off the opening night of her return Australian tour.
She started with perhaps her most accessible tune, In the Same Room, from 2012 album Ekstasis. Although the song is one of only a few in her repertoire that doesn't sound better live, it got the audience's attention straight off the bat.
From there the set gently built in the manner of a post-rock performance. Horns Surrounding Me, from Holter's superb 2013 album Loud City Song, built off a propulsive bass line and sax part, while Maxim's I was the night's first major highlight, opening in a wash of cymbals that was thoroughly transcendent.
A cover of Barbara Lewis' 1963 hit Hello Stranger was like stepping into an otherworldly dream, and perhaps the best example of what it is fans find so enchanting about the ethereal singer and her arrangements. Bravely adding a new song, Betsy on the Roof, continued to develop the set until Maxim's II provided the cacophonous peak. A well-deserved encore brought a further highlight in Goddess Eyes, featuring a Daft Punk-like vocoder from Fogel.
Earlier, Matt Mondanile, best known as guitarist for New Jersey outfit Real Estate, supported in solo mode under his alias, Ducktails. Mondanile's guitar solos came to the fore as he mainly road-tested new tracks he'd told _The West Australian _ earlier in the day could be for either his next solo record or upcoming Real Estate material.
A cover of Barbara Lewis' 1963 hit Hello Stranger was like stepping into an otherworldly dream.
