Reviewed onTuesday February 9
As an audience of all ages fills the grand Concert Hall, the stage design is a source of great speculation. Although a thick cloud of smoke hangs in the air, through the haze I can make out rows of beaded thread suspended from the ceiling and a curious-looking contraption cloaked in a heavy black cloth. The house music stops and Purity Ring producer Corin Roddick appears, unveiling an elaborate tech set-up that showcases geometric lanterns (reportedly built by the synth wiz himself), to generous applause.
The lights fade to reveal the petite figure of vocalist Megan James hiding among the thread, which has become an intricate maze of LED lights, bursting with colour reminiscent of an underwater wonderland. So begins an evening of visual and sensory excess.
‘Stranger Than Earth’, as the opener, just about blows the roof off the Opera House. The speakers pulsate and the floor vibrates as the multi-coloured lanterns light up with each strike of Roddick’s drum sticks. A former fashion school graduate, James appears ethereal as she takes centre stage, positioned over a wind machine that sweeps her flowing cape and mane of curls up and away. Her vocals are a hauntingly beautiful contrast of light and shade (and a little Auto-Tune), and they interlace perfectly with Roddick’s hypnotic dub beats.
‘Obedear’ starts small, building to an energetic peak as James creates jarring yet totally mesmerising shapes, to the delight of the crowd. After ‘Repetition’ winds up, she takes a moment to welcome us and marvel at the beauty of this world-famous location, before choosing to keep it brief for fear of getting “too emotional”. She finishes by dedicating the fan favourite ‘Push Pull’ to Australia, and the crowd erupts.
‘Bodyache’ and ‘Heartsigh’ force some of the entirely seated audience to their feet, prompting the sweet-sounding James to invite everyone to stand and dance, because “It’s about to get turned up!” Cue ‘Sea Castles’, ‘Dust Hymn’ and ‘Flood On The Floor’, and the audience becomes a heaving sea of bodies moving in time to the duo’s atmospheric dream-pop.
James continues to dance and weave between the ever-changing colours of purple, pink, green, orange and blue lights, and seems to thrive on the theatrics they create. The pair are truly in their element – Roddick behind the decks and James perched on a speaker with the crowd hanging on every word.
After the popular ‘Fineshrine’, James announces that she’s hot and needs to take off her shoes to play their last song. “We never do encores because people make requests, and we like to choose our final song,” she explains. No-one seems too disappointed, however, as they launch barefoot into ‘Begin Again’, before professing their love for Australians – and something tells me the feeling is mutual.
