To say that Kate Miller-Heidke's Newcastle concert ended on a high note at the weekend would be - even if literal - somewhat of an understatement. Miller-Heidke's voice defies gravity.
The award-winning singer-songwriter delivered a trademark showcase of her astonishing technical range to a sold out crowd at City Hall Saturday night as her pandemic-waylaid 'Child in Reverse' tour comes to a close with one final show at Sydney's State Theatre on Tuesday.
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In a 16 song set, Miller-Heidke breezed through genre divides, blending theatrical opera with clever pop poetry, folk and musical theatre seemingly never settling on one - even within the bounds of a single song - but tripping through the boundaries with the same energy as her rampant vocal gymnastics.
The 90-minute show opened with A Quiet Voice from Miller-Heidke's 2022 album Child In Reverse and after a pared back accompaniment from Keir Nuttall on acoustic guitar (a showstopper in his own right), Miller-Heidke immediately launched into vocally percussive and scat riffs that would set the tone for the evening.
At once ethereal and airy, undercut by a feverish creative energy, Miller-Heidke's troupe of musicians, including Indigenous vocalist Jess Hitchcock, cellist and pianist Isaac Hayward and bassist/guitarist Sam Pankhurst, tore through the set as a technically-immaculate fever dream of musical talent.
The show's collaborative energy peaked with Humiliation, in which after a looped multi-layered acoustic introduction by Nuttal, again on guitar, Miller-Heidke upped the ante at first layering in a tambourine beat before singing directly into her partner's guitar to lay down the gossamery foundation for a lengthy instrumental riff between Nuttall and Hayward on the keys.
Opening act, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, Didirri rejoined the troupe to duet Share Your Air, after serenading the crowd with a suite of candid and stripped-back break-up songs tuned to his weeping electric guitar, before Miller-Heidke invited a young local singer up from the crowd to sing Caught in the Crowd.
Miller-Heidke closed out the show with a theatrical cover of Paint It Black, intermingled with a few stunningly belted operatic high notes to standing ovation, before an encore performance of her 2019 Eurovision number Zero Gravity.
The Child In Reverse tour began in Perth on July 6, and wraps up in Sydney Tuesday night after 11 stops around the country.
Simon McCarthy
Simon McCarthy is a digital journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes and produces video and multimedia for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine, and co-produces the Toohey's News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
Simon McCarthy is a digital journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes and produces video and multimedia for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine, and co-produces the Toohey's News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
