LIVE! Hey Rosetta / Jezabels at Myer Horowitz (more dates)

You never quite know how guest lists are going to work when you go to a show. If it’s just a venue where you stand, there’s usually just a list, and in you go. If there’s reserved seating, they’ll usually have tickets set aside with your name on them. But this was a new one – apparently something went awry with the printer, so my official ticket for the Jezabels / Hey Rosetta show on Tuesday night is one for the souvenir book – a hand-written note on legal paper (pictured).

Jezabels

I didn’t know a lot about the Jezabels up until last week. Australian. No bassist. Fronted by Hayley Mary, who is one of those rare breed of lead vocalists that doesn’t play an instrument – at least during live performances.

The one track I knew the best going into the evening – “Endless Summer” – was second in their set, as they played a nice blend of indie and hard rock, and seemed to captivate the audience’s attention more than most opening acts would.

Hayley reminded me quite a bit of Metric’s frontwoman Emily Haines, but without the blonde hair obviously (Hayley has a short, jet black hairdo). Friends at the break, however, were reminded more of Karen O (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who now that I think about it, the music’s quite similar as well), or Kate Bush. Incredible voice, definite hard rocker girl. She does seem to wear black a lot, as witnessed by her various press photos, and she was also wearing an all-black outfit for Tuesday’s performance. Halfway through her performance, she took her black leather jacket off to reveal …. a black t-shirt ….

Their guitarist, Samuel Lockwood, had the most obvious Australian accent. Their drummer was a madman with the sticks, likely thanks to his time in a metal band.

Keyboardist Heather Shannon, the seemingly more grounded of the female pair, discussed merchandise, then realized “shit, we’re out” when noting they had sold out of their albums while touring. Which, frankly, is a good thing isn’t it, that you’re impressing enough people that you’d sell out of your album on the road.

Overall, I liked them. I didn’t tear off to the merch booth to buy their music, but was thoroughly entertained. I’d definitely go see them again, preferably in a standing venue where I think they’d feel a lot more comfortable.

Hey Rosetta

Hey Rosetta always puts on a marvellous show. They rock. They ballad but not in an old school lame ballad way, they always throw a little twist in there somewhere. They folk, but it’s always one step off folk, and one step off folk rock, and with an eastern twist. The light show was exceptionally intricate for the Myer Horowitz, certainly the most effort I’ve seen in that vein at that venue. Ever.

It was the second time I’ve seen them this year, though I’ll never tire of the band. Their newest album “Seeds”, my favorite of all, was their second album nominated for a Polaris Music Prize, and deservedly so. I think I preferred their Pawn Shop performance, but that’s probably mostly about the venue. The sound at Myer Horowitz is decidedly grander, their light show was as well, but I think personally this is one of those bands that just feels more comfortable performing in a smaller, darker club, and I feel more comfortable watching a band like this in the same.

They played a compendium of their songs, and finished off their encore with a David Bowie tribute of all things, including “Changes” and then embedding “All The Young Dudes” in their own track “The Simplest Thing” (full setlist at setlist.fm, thanks to superfan Deej). And during the last song of the main set and encore – a giant confetti canyon spewing out tissue paper maple leafs in fall colors. They really are an incredible, incredible band, and deserve all the accolades heaped upon them, and many more.

Tour Itinerary – Hey Rosetta and Jezabels

Tour Itinerary – Hey Rosetta ONLY

Tour Itinerary – Jezabels ONLY

Tagged as: australia