[Live Review] SAFIA

safia-14-2

Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane
Friday October 7, 2016 :

We arrived to a packed out Tivoli Theatre with the dance floor heaving and people hanging over the balcony of the mezzanine level to the banging tunes of Set MO who not only had the crowd warmed up for the night ahead, but had everyone on their feet with arms in the air. I had missed the first 3 song photography cut off but a quick chat to the bouncer and he let me in to grab a few shots. You can tell these guys were absolute stoked to be playing a crowd of this size, they were all smiles, engaging with the crowd and genuinely loving life. The crowd were loving their set just as much in return, singing to remixes of RÜFÜS, along with their own tracks such as ‘See Right Through Me’.

After a short break SAFIA took to the stage to thunderous applause from the crowd, belting out ‘My Love Is Gone’ and one quick look at the crowd behind me and everyone was hooked. This is another band who looked absolutely thrilled to be back on stage, with Ben Woolner telling the crowd how great it was to be playing in such a beautiful venue like the Tivoli.

The band showcased just how good the songs from their their debut album, Internal, translate in a live setting, with ‘Make Them Wheels Roll’, ‘Home’, ‘Fake it Til The Sunrise’, and ‘Close To You’ showing how tight they are as a live act, and of course showing off Ben’s amazing vocal range, hitting those falsetto notes with ease.

The unmistakable tick tock opening sounds of ‘Counting Sheep’ had the crowd jumping, ‘Listen To Soul, Listen To Blues’ was stunning and gave me goosebumps, and breaking into Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc’ in the opening of ‘By Bye’ was brilliant, and both a great surprise, and a great example of how the band keeps the audience on their toes.

Highlights of their set were most definitely ‘You Are The One’, ‘Paranoia Ghosts and Other Sounds’, ‘Over You’, and of course, their collaboration with Peking Duck, ‘Take Me Over’, which was reworked with some tribal drumming which was amazing, causing members of the crowd to hold up the inevitable TUNE rag, and not only sitting on each others shoulders, but actually standing on top of them as well.

The set came to a bit of an abrupt halt, due to some technical difficulties, but after a few minutes the boys were back on stage for an encore performance of ‘Go To Waste’ and the gorgeous ‘Embracing Me’.

Having only seen SAFIA play in a festival setting previously, it was so good to see them play in an amazing venue with amazing sound, clearly these guys are at the top of Australia’s dance scene and the performance they put on tonight definitely showed what they were made of.

Reviewer and Photographer : Chrissy Kavalieros

[nggallery id = 595]