Reviewed on Friday September 19
Last Friday was one of those rare and lucky shows at Manning Bar when the mixing of the sound was just right and every layer of music in each group, from the melody lines to saxophone hooks, was given a chance to shine.
Baby Lips & The Silhouettes opened the night with a spacey set of progressive jazz. Between the brassy horn section, sleek vocal harmonies and steady bass, their performance was incredibly tight for a seven-piece. Proving they were more than they seemed, they pulled out some sneaky tricks along the way by intermittently switching instruments with each other, and the bassist even jumped onto vocals to try his hand at rapping.
Darwin act Sietta may have been expecting a larger crowd than the sparse audience that greeted them. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop them from bringing big vocals, booty shaking and heavy bass that cut through the relative quiet in the crowd. But despite their solid efforts, the audience remained reluctant to join the fun, making the atmosphere feel a little flat.
So it came with great delight when the nine members of Saskwatch took the stage, lighting up the venue with a new kind of giddy happiness and a big, bright sound. As they opened with ‘Give Me A Reason’, people came seemingly from nowhere to the dancefloor, entranced by the confidence and fierce energy of frontwoman Nkechi Anele.
While their set was filled mostly with tunes from their recent album Nose Dive, Saskwatch dropped some old favourites, including their popular cover of Little Red’s ‘Coca Cola’, which was met with particularly intense cheers. More pensive beauties like ‘Call Your Name’ brought the audience out of numb joy and into reverie, until another energetic track would make an appearance and the party raged on.
As Anele exhibited her powerful, sexy dance moves onstage, there were some pretty questionable ones going on in the audience – a goofy mix of head bops and boogies. But the beauty of it was that no-one cared, because it was all about the music and the mood, and when that happens, anything goes.
