Reviewed on Friday July 17 (photo by Ashley Mar)
Tom Iansek’s second solo outing as #1 Dads, About Face, was the sleeper success album of 2014. It hardly made him a household name, even among music fans here in Oz, with only the one single – the Ainslie Wills collaboration ‘So Solider’ – getting any substantial radio airplay. And yet, while the Big Scary songwriter has been gradually spreading his tentacles across the breadth of the Aussie music scene from performance to production, it’s largely down to About Face that he’s managed to set an Oxford Art Factory record for the most consecutive shows at the venue.
Tonight is the fourth in Iansek’s run of five shows on Oxford Street, but it was the first to go on sale, which means the crowd is packed in and politely enthusiastic. The current #1 Dads live set-up, which debuted in the Sydney Festival Spiegeltent earlier this year, sees Iansek not only joined by his two instrumental accompanists but also a couple of special guests – the first of whom is Tom Snowden, here to perform the lilting burner, ‘Return To’. Snowden’s voice is like the soundtrack to a blue whale breaching the surface on the open ocean – it never fails to leave an audience stunned for its beauty and magnitude, and so it proves this time; an immense contrast to Iansek’s own modest whispers.
Such are the unusual foundations of the #1 Dads experience. Iansek operates as part frontman, part musical director – it’s certainly a strange dynamic when the best-recognised (and arguably best altogether) moments feature guest vocalists; the rest of the set carried more on the strength of Iansek’s songwriting alone than the whole package, voice included. But Iansek is too mild to be a rock star anyway. The tunes are punctuated with his awkwardly endearing attempts at humour – some might call them ‘dad jokes’ – and he’s not afraid to follow the grandeur of the Snowden performance with his oh-so-delicate ‘Blood Pt. 2’.
Iansek has hinted previously that #1 Dads might be winding to a close; perhaps his focus is on Big Scary and other projects. Tonight’s show “may be the last time we play for you”, he admits, to a chorus of disapproval from the floor. He’s got a surprise to make up for it – an understated cover of FKA Twigs’ ‘Two Weeks’. But the real message to take away is that local audiences are ready to recognise songwriting talents like Iansek, almost defined as they are by their very lack of excess – and that’s a wonderful sign for the immediate future of Australian music.
