“Like, see … the energy comes out of us and it goes into the audience and they bounce it back and we just play catch with some vibes…” were words mumbled by Kurt Cobain during a slightly awkward interview in the early ’90s. What does this have to do with The Preatures show at Newcastle’s Cambridge Hotel last Saturday night, you ask? Well, you see, I think it just might have been the most beautiful exchanging of energy between performer and audience that I’ve ever witnessed.
Frontwoman Isabella Manfredi glides onto stage and less than half a song in, the band and crowd are engaged in an electric exchange that makes you forget that this four-piece is at the pointy end of a 40-date regional tour of Australia.
This isn’t my first time seeing The Preatures, in fact they’ve firmly secured themselves onto my ‘must see at all costs’ list of acts. They make me move, feel empowered and grin like a dork all at once. Then the onstage chemistry between Izzy and Preatures guitarist Jack, brings me right back down to earth where I could just melt into the floor. They’re really something, those two.
Speaking of empowered, the entire night featured a lineup of female-fronted acts, a move that is quickly gaining pace in the Aussie live music scene. The whole tour was supported by amazing-in-her-own-right Ali Barter (whose vocals are that good live, I finally discovered) and opened by Georgia June.
The Preatures produce a timeless rock sound that I suspect wouldn’t have felt out of place in a similar setting a few decades back, perhaps in one of the many venues that put Newcastle on the map for it’s pub-rock scene. They’re the kind of band capable of igniting a festival crowd, a stadium (which they did recently while supporting Harry Styles) or indeed a small, sweaty room in a pub in Newy. And they’re simply a must-see.
Reviewer and Photographer : Melissa Wilson
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