Considering Jess Ribeiro’s giggly, smiling demeanour and offhand onstage banter, you wouldn’t have picked her latest LP, Kill It Yourself, is a work of brooding atmosphere and lyrical gravitas. However, here for the record’s official hometown launch, as soon as Ribeiro and her five onstage companions kicked into the album material, the room became a ravine of hypnotic tension.
Tonight’s show fell at the end of the national album tour, giving the band plenty of time to devise optimal live renderings of the songs. While the album largely deals in subtle tension-raising, tonight they fleshed out the dynamics and intensified the overall delivery. The record was produced by ex-Bad Seed and regular PJ Harvey collaborator Mick Harvey, who joined the band tonight on keys and backing vocals. Harvey’s a certified studio guru, but he’s never been a spotlight-stealing performer. As such, it’d be unnecessary to lavishly extol his contributions tonight, but his presence did seem to further empower the band’s performance.
In fact, the same could be said for any of the band members; each of them proficiently carried out their respective duties without getting in the way of the songs. Indeed, the songs were the true stars of tonight’s show. Details of heartache, vicious intent and social outsiders were relayed through Ribeiro’s stunningly expressive voice. She sung with graceful precision and melodic certainty, while also conveying a rich personality that made it just about impossible for attentions to waiver.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Photo by Emily Day
Loved: Darwin’s best band, support act Gorsha.
Hated: Ribeiro could’ve done at least six more encores.
Drank: Booze.
