things are starting to get serious at womadelaide with this artist
she having a reputation preceding her that meant this would be good
a number of years spent lending her unique voice to various projects
transglobal underground most famously but many others besides
not to mention a body of work of her own that deserves respect
the main stage setup to also indicate that this show would be special
particularly a string section seen doing a last minute sound check
a quick look around indicating that the crowd was also in attendance
the lady coming on stage and promptly taking up position on a stool
straight into the first tune and the large band also with her
sounds good, looks good, though her voice a little underwhelming
putting this down to a settling in period at the start of the show
but unfortunately her voice never really lifted above average
and her attitude never lifted at all - a major disappointment
it really was a case of an apathy infused performance
this lady speaks english and actually deigned to speak at one point
but largely deferred to her keyboards player to do the talking stuff
confirming the appearance that she just couldn't have cared less
though part-way through her performance she did stand up
did a jiggle around the stage and then promptly returned to the stool
which had me thinking maybe she was contractually obliged to do that
for it seemed totally contrived and not at all a spontaneous act
i just could not believe what was happening on this large stage
a great light show, an interesting set of musicians and a receptive audience
her style of music able to translate very easily to a large stage
being electronica based beats music with her soaring voice on top
tunes from many years ago still lodged in the head and ready to come out
she sort of got there musically but she seemed determined to kill it
a very petulant performance to a crowd wanting a top performance
it would be interesting to know why she felt so disinterested
shy? lazy? bored? tired? injured? offended? suffering? egotistical?
anyway - whatever it was it just came across as bad attitude
a music retailer acquaintance advising afterwards of a story
he had been offered an instore appearance of the lady in melbourne
but advised by her own record company that she can be a diva
he politely declining to be part of that scene and tonight repudiated
damn shame really - this could easily have been a blinder
she could have won over a large audience so easily
translating to ticket sales for the subsequent tour
which apparently is not selling too well at all
this may explain her lack-lustre show
but really should have driven her on
oh well - there's more music here
she the loser - not us...
