After forcing a keen Sydney crowd to wait months for their live show (due to illness), the quartet pulled out all the stops at Oxford Art Factory to give their new and old fans the aural spectacle we’ve come to know from Husky.
A good hunk of the crowd came down to see local champion Tom Stephens, who wooed fans with a five-piece band and shared songs from his upcoming album. Following Stephens, with the stage well and truly warm for her, Tia Gostelow proved to be another artist that falls in the ‘way too young to be this talented’ category. Backed by an all-female band, the 17 year old brought her blend of folk and indie pop to life. On her set list she pulled out songs like ‘That’s What You Get’ and gave a sneaky glimpse of what’s to come from the artist, performing an unreleased song she wrote with Sydney trio Little May.
When the curtains parted again, out came Husky to kick off their set with ‘Ghost’, the opener from their new album Punchbuzz. The distinctive voice of front man Husky Gawenda cut through the Oxford Art Factory, proving instantly that his fight with glandular fever was well and truly over.
The quartet played a number of tracks from the new album, including fan favourites ‘Late Night Store’, ‘Splinters In The Fire’ and the title track ‘Punchbuzz’, while also bringing back the songs that made Sydney love them from their debut album Forever So. The importance of the keyboard becomes more apparent at a live Husky show as Gideon Preiss brought new life to songs like ‘Hunter’, with extended solos and sweet melodies.
Just when we thought they weren’t coming back (chiefly because they played ‘I’m Not Coming Back’), Gawenda and Preiss were joined by drummer Arron Light at the front of the stage to perform a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’. With only a guitar and the luminescence of Light’s phone to guide them as he looked up the lyrics, the three men silenced the room with their chilling rendition.
Husky played the Oxford Art Factory on Saturday August 12.
