Amanda Palmer with The Danger Ensemble, The Red Paintings, Emma Dean, and The Follow @ The Zoo, Fortitude Valley (19/12/07)

The Follow

Amanda Palmer liked The Follow that much that she dragged them up to Brisbane to support her at The Zoo and gave them a personal introduction. The Follow’s music is best described simply as alternative rock. I can see why Amanda Palmer likes them, and they deliver a very energetic performance. Highlight song was the slightly more poppy Happy Now which is featured on their EP “Hope You’re Happy”.

Performance 6.5
Technical 5


Emma Dean

Emma Dean has been building quite the fan base during 2006 and 2007 since departing from Kate Miller-Heidke’s band. Emma Dean has an alternative pop folk sound, similar to Kate Miller-Heidke but with her own uniqueness. 3 Meals is very similar to some of Kate Miller-Heidke’s more recent songs like Words. Her performance style is similar to Kate in the way that she comes across a bit cheeky between songs and enchanting during the songs. This combined with her immense confidence on stage, this all adds up to a greatly entertaining set. Surprisingly the sound was pretty good (very good if you compare it to The Zoo’s usual subpar sound).

Performance 7.5
Technical 7


The Red Paintings

I need to more of The Red Painting in my life. I always say that after seeing The Red Paintings, but I very rarely do anything about it. The Red Paintings combine classically driven stings with psychedelic rock and Trash Mcsweeney’s haunting vocals that are similar to Placebo’s Brian Molko earlier releases. When you see The Red Paintings’ live performance there is much more to experience than just their music. There are elaborate costumes, artists creating their art works (David Hooper from CBD Gallery on this occasion), and usually something else special and tonight that was burlesque performer Miss Bertie who performed throughout the set. The Red Paintings are real treat to see live. Sound was still surprisingly good. The strings ended up a bit buried on a couple of tracks under all the heavier rock. I was shocked that they didn’t play Mad World during their set but I wasn’t disappointed as Trash Mcsweeney and Amanda Palmer performed it at the end of the night as a lovely haunting duet.

Performance 8.5
Technical 6.5


Amanda Palmer with The Danger Ensemble

Amanda Palmer (of The Dresden Dolls) was in Australia to promote her soon to be release debut solo album “Who Killed Amanda Palmer” produced by Ben Folds after he sent her some fan mail. In keeping with the theme of this release, a dead Amanda Palmer was carried out onto the stage and propped up in front of the microphone that slowly came to life as the music built up around her. Amanda Palmer is an excellent stage performer her performance was full of attitude and theatrical to watch. Amanda has a natural openness that makes her live performances feel so relaxed. The set was filled with songs from the upcoming solo release as well as The Dresden Doll’s classics and a few covers. Coin Operated Boy was probably the crowd highlight. Amanda was joined on stage throughout the set by The Danger Ensemble who provided the performance art, dance and mime. The crowd went absolutely crazy when Amanda Palmer performed a hilarious cover of Rihanna’s “hit” Umbrella, complete with umbrella dancers. Amanda got a huge response to her sing-along ukulele cover of Radiohead’s Creep. But if I had to pick one song of the night, it would have to be the very last song of which was the evocative cover of Roland Orzabal’s Mad World. This show was amazing and Amanda Palmer put everything she had into it.

Performance 9.5
Technical 7.5