Reviewed on Friday January 15
Oxford Art Factory has wasted no time in pumping out the shows and kicking off 2016 in style. The venue continued its stellar run with a band that’s had an equally stellar 2015 and start of the year, Holy Holy. The room filled relatively early with an exciting mixed bag of punters as Canadian outfit The Franklin Electric relished the opportunity to perform their catchy, pop-tinged folk songs for us. Tracks like ‘Unsatisfied’ and ‘This Is How I Let You Down’ were charming numbers that excited the crowd with some delicate harmonies and frontman Jon Matte’s haunting and beautiful trumpet work.
When Olympia lead singer Olivia Bartley took the stage it was hard to ignore her similarity to Sia, with a bleached blonde bob and some serious vocal strength to boot, but the set was more akin to St. Vincent. While it was a band affair, you couldn’t help but be drawn to Bartley’s impressive stage presence, confidence and sparkly gold jumpsuit. The music happily played in the eccentric, from the upbeat single ‘Tourists’ to the stark, bluesy number ‘Atlantis’ that hinted at an artist almost fully realised.
With two European tours and ample triple j airplay, Holy Holy kicked off their national headline tour to a crowd that certainly made them feel very welcome, and opener ‘Impossible Like You’ undoubtedly let their intentions be known. Guitarist Oscar Dawson and vocalist Timothy Carroll’s chemistry onstage was infectious – in fact, the whole band was bouncing off each other, clearly excited about the warm embrace. The drawcard was definitely Carroll’s lush, husky and deceptively powerful voice mixed with Dawson’s at times jaw-dropping guitar skills, and they both shone on ‘If I Were You’ before the whole band connected and positively lifted the roof on the massive ‘History’.
They professed their love for Phil Collins with a cover of ‘Another Day In Paradise’ before they closed the set with the rapturous ‘House Of Cards’. Not content to rest easy, they returned for a heartfelt acoustic tribute on David Bowie’s ‘Starman’ that segued into a blistering ‘You Cannot Call For Love Like A Dog’. This was a show that said it all from a band that’s in a league of its own: a euphoric set and one hell of a way to kick-start a tour.
