it's super lady power!

Vera Blue @ Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW Australia 25/05/2018 written by Brendan Lewis.

“Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Supergirl!” Australia’s very own supergirl of indie pop, Vera Blue is here to save the day with her regular touch of lady power, to rescue fans from the threats of dreary music and boredom, and leave us all mended from those evils! A darkness approaches up ahead at the Enmore Theatre, filled with hundreds of civilian fans, can supergirl Vera Blue’s ‘Lady Power Tour’ save them all in time, or will the evils of boredom and dreariness take over them?

Find out, after the break…

A massive earth-shattering bass pulsing beat with synced lighting, brings forth the tyranny of ‘Magazine’, followed by ‘Give In’ and ‘Fingertips’. Vera flies around the stage in high spirits, racing to save the day with her incredible voice, which is mixed brilliantly, stands out nicely and is stunning as she hits some incredibly well controlled high notes in the bridge section of ‘Magazine’. For all three of these songs, the bass is thunderous, and if the rest of the sounds weren’t keeping up the fight, the bass would have defeated the great mix, but luckily the bass hasn’t defeated Vera yet! For all three songs, the crowd are highly charged and far from dreary, as they dance and sing along to every stand-out vocal. For ‘Give In’ Vera being the supergirl she is, manages to hold every vocal note perfectly, while still flying around the stage energetically. In ‘Fingertips’, Vera seems to show a sense of vulnerability, as the vibe of this song takes on a more emotional feel, and features accompanying vocal harmonies to assist Vera in her fight against the wild drumming on stage, blasting the energy sky high!

The next confrontation of songs are ‘Settle’ with its sensual heavy beat and hypnotic guitar riffs, then ‘Overachiever’, ‘Patterns’ and ‘We Used To’. For all of these songs, Vera’s voice is exquisite, the way she improvises her notes in the bridge of ‘Settle’, the powerful heights and show off highs in ‘Overachiever’ with it’s beautiful and well-balanced blend of sounds, the warm heart-felt purity of Vera’s sweet heavenly voice in both ‘Patterns’ with Vera now taking charge on acoustic guitar while her voice calms us all, and ‘We Used To’ with it’s reminiscent, dreamy yet sorrowful vibe that exerts bursts of energy as the song increases in dynamics. And still, for all these songs, Vera moves around positively, up close to us at the front projecting her superhero glory and keeps us all safe from our minds wandering off by instigating a clap along in the last chorus of ‘Settle’, plus addressing us all between songs. The darkness isn’t extinguished yet sadly, for the energy in ‘We Used To’ seems a little absent in the crowd, will Vera make a triumphant rescue???

For the rest of this episode, we see (blind pun intended) Supergirl Vera face off with songs like ‘Mended’, the dark desires of ‘Private’,  the delicate touch and massive build up with psychedelic lights in ‘First Week’, the anthemic pop vibes with impressive differing dynamics in ‘Fools’ and of course, the metal-as-f*** totally not uplifting pop wonder, ‘Regular Touch’. In ‘Private’ Vera makes a heroic comeback to the energy hype with her dance moves, incredible lustful vocals and the addition of smoke shooting up in towers from the stage around Vera, firing her and the crowd up as she races around the smoke in swift evasion. Charged up by the positive energy, Vera now chats to the audience about her debut album and the journey she’s braved so far, before heading into the depths of the following songs and their challenges. Amongst these songs is ‘Hold’, which is a fierce battle between the overbearing loud bass in this particular song, and Vera’s extraordinary voice. Luckily, Vera’s voice still shines brightly and is still the main focus thanks to Vera putting everything she’s got into her impressive wide vocal range (show off), made evident by the return of mountains of energy in the crowd as they sing along while Vera races around…. Still…. I mean, surely even Supergirl gets exhausted?! As heroic as Supergirl is, well, I guess she can’t always save them all, right? In ‘Said Goodbye To Your Mother’, Vera starts off on her acoustic guitar and soft sweet vocals, then…. “I completely forgot the words to this song” Whoops! (and down comes the building). After a burst of roaring laughter from both Vera and the audience, the audience help pick up the broken pieces and sing it with Vera.

Now, the final face-off just like the big-bad Lex Luther…. Oh wait, that’s Superman not Supergirl, still, they make references to him in Supergirl. After the girly pop sensations of ‘Mended’ ‘Regular Touch’ is here and ready to take over! An alternative intro builds the suspense, and once the normal intro emerges and the audience catch on, an eruption of cheers reign throughout the venue. The crowd clap along to the beat as if cheering Supergirl on, while everyone sings the normal notes and Vera sings alternate notes in the verse, giving the song a vocal harmony effect, and once the chorus hits, BOOM! No, a spaceship didn’t invade or something as you were probably expecting me to write, instead, the energy both musically, plus physically from Vera and in the audience explodes! In this song, I feel I may be the dark enemy, as I get ready for the PAIN concert tomorrow night (industrial heavy metal band), and I sing/scream/growl along to “don’t need no regular touch” in my hardcore heavy metal voice….. What? This song’s metal-as-f*** right? At Groovin’ The Moo Festival in Maitland recently, the mix of sound was quite disappointing, and left the signature electronic hook melody and complementing bass-line in the chorus lost in drums and vocals. But not tonight, the sound mixer has equipped Vera with the perfect complementing sound, like Wayne making the perfect gadgets for Supergirl.

The day is saved it would seem, the invading threats defeated, but wait, what’s that?!

Of course there’s an encore, because after all, this is the Lady Power Tour (yep, some endings are sadly predictable in Supergirl). As if the hype wasn’t intense enough for ‘Regular Touch’, ‘Lady Power’ blows that out of the water with it’s strong femininity and dance provoking anthemic sound! Vera of course keeps up the high-spirited energy as she moves around energetically, and this is while more smoke towers up from the depths of the stage, but wait, there’s more! What would a grand finale be without a, well, big grand finale? Just when Vera’s musical energy is locked with ours in the audience, an explosion of confetti (which I didn’t see coming), fills the venue like twinkling stars in the songs last chorus!

Supergirl indeed! Well done Vera, you really did save the day and leave us all mended from boredom and dreariness with your positive energy and beautiful voice and talent! You’ve grown as an artist so much in the past year since I saw you at the Metro Theatre last July, and I’m sure no matter what challenges and evils lurk around the corner, you’ll continue to defeat them!