The Audreys’ session on Wednesday 19 February is a stripped back affair. No band, no pretension, but plenty of song and dance.
Singer, Taasha Coates, and guitarist, Tristan Goodall, perform songs mostly from the forthcoming album Til My Tears Roll Away – though a few old favourites are thrown into the mix as well. The album continues their exploration of the region between blues, country and rock music. Also familiar is their particular emphasis on melancholy and anger, with songs like ‘My Darlin’ Girl’, which sports a big, dirty guitar riff and lyrics about a troubled relationship between father and daughter.
The new album’s title song, ‘Tears Roll Away’ is described as darker, raunchier, adult version of the children’s favourite, ‘Shake Out My Sillies’. Another song, again with aggressive guitar, is a sort of three-minute-long drunken toast to all of the people who drop out or opt out from society. With such a particular style, one might expect the songs to get repetitive, but instead, each one feels fresh and interesting, like it is exposing a new aspect of these familiar emotions.
This is down to the excellent performers. Goodall is a skilled guitarist and completely fills the shoes of what would normally be a four-piece band. Coates’s singing is absolutely captivating. Her control and range are extremely impressive and her embodiment of each song’s emotion is a huge part of what makes The Audreys’ style work so well. She induces the sort of joy you can only find in watching somebody do what they were born to do. It’s a weird feeling, watching somebody sing about sorrow and pain with a massive grin on your face, but such is the experience of seeing The Audreys play.
And it isn’t all doom and gloom. They bring a certain tongue-in-cheek feeling to their use of genre by featuring the song ‘Banjo and Violin’ fairly early in the set. They’ve ‘gone a little bit country’ and they’re inviting the audience to go with them. A real highlight of the show is a version of ‘Comfort Me’ which has been re-recorded as a doo-wop song for the new album. As is common, they perform a hastily prepared cover song, this time a sultry, melodramatic version of Jack White’s ‘Love Interrupted’.
The other foil to the dark lyrics is the banter between Goodall and Coates. They come across as effortlessly unaffected, so much so that when this bearded man in a suit and woman in an artistically-cut top decide to make fun of hipsters, the crowd goes with them and laughs along. They are genuinely charming, probably because of years having to perform within a bottle’s throw of their audience.
As The Audreys talk to the Spiegeltent crowd it is clear that many in the crowd had been at the same gig last year. With such skilled performers and such beautiful music, it’s easy to see how this following has formed.
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars
The Audreys
Taasha Coates and Tristan Goodall
Adelaide Fringe
www.adelaidefringe.com.au
19 February
