The Hot Sardines.

The prospect of a jazz band being able to make old sounds seem new again is enough to raise audience expectations very high – perhaps unfairly so. New York’s Hot Sardines do put on a more-than-solid show, powered by undeniable instrumental skill and laced with their own unique brand of quirks (include a tap-dancer and a washboard performance) – but this reviewer was ultimately left with the sense of a group that remained relatively contained and conservative.

The approach taken by The Hot Sardines - in terms of repertoire, arrangement, and stagecraft - seems designed to offer an experience that both electrifies and comforts, but it’s difficult to successfully manage both, and it felt in the Spiegeltent like the two objectives were working against each other.

Vocalist Elizabeth Bougerol delivers the goods in soul, style, and personality, while her stage patter is charming, ingratiating, and laudably unpretentious - and yet it feels like she’s constrained by the format this group has chosen for itself. One suspects it could be both fascinating and exciting to see and hear the kind of places that this singer could lead jazz music into, if she and her bandmates were able to go beyond the reverence for history that leads to familiar song selection and a nagging sense of potential yet to be fulfilled.

The Hot Sardines are right to believe that classic jazz feeds the heart and soul, but this Adelaide Cabaret Festival appearance perhaps leaned a little too heavily on the side of tradition. With a few more chances taken, perhaps this band could really blow the roof off.

Anthony Vawser

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