Meg Washington: The GEM Tour

Meg Washington’s GEM Tour gig at QPAC’s Playhouse got off to a mellow start with a couple of transcendent looping instrumentals by her band’s guitarist. The laid-back atmosphere continued with the first couple of songs. Meg admitted she hadn’t played shows in her home town of Brisbane for quite some time, and seemed a bit tentative at first. However, it didn’t take long for the singer and her outstanding band to get warmed up. The ARIA Award-winning singer/songwriter marks 20 years of her unique artistic outpouring with a new album, GEM – her first collection of original songs in five years – GEM’s 8 new tracks made up the bulk of the show, with a sprinkling of past gems including ‘How to Tame Lions’, ‘Lazarus Drug’, and the AACTA Award-winning track ‘Fine’ from the film How to Make Gravy, based on the Paul Kelly song, with a screenplay by Meg and her partner, the film’s director, Nick Waterman.

The performer’s banter in between songs is insightful, giving us a glimpse into her creative process and her quirky sense of humour, which had the crowd quickly on her side and made for a hugely entertaining and fulfilling concert experience. I loved her stories about her music teacher – who incidentally was in the audience – and her poetic, surreal, quirky, serious, funny, observational humour take on writing about life. Her songs are Dylanesque in their poetry and represent a wide range of different genres – country rock (‘Kidding’), a 90’s Brit-pop anthemic vibe for others (‘The Sound of the Feeling’; ‘Starlife’), shady Tango beats (‘Shangri-La’), soul diva (‘Honeysuckle Island’; ‘Golden Orb Blues’) – and lyrics about everything from her maternal instinct toward her son (‘Lobster’) to existential questioning about her purpose in this life, and shopping for shoes (‘Natural Beauty’)! Speaking of shoes, I loved the fact that, after a few songs, Meg raced off stage in her chunky rock diva high heels to come back in more comfortable cowboy boots. Meg, you rock!

I am so impressed with the different musical styles that the artist brings to life, and her musical talent – as well as fronting her band as lead singer with a killer vocal range, she plays guitar and keyboards. The band are brilliant and accomplished, and you can feel the supportive atmosphere on the stage. We were treated to a few stripped-back solos with Meg at the keys alone, and a ‘non-core’ – Meg’s take on providing an encore without the fake dramatic stage exit and return! When the stage smoke effects got a little overpowering, her quip, ‘I think that’s enough smoke now, don’t you?’ had the whole audience laughing with the performer, relaxing with her effortless charm and ease on stage. Don’t miss seeing this award-winning musician as Meg and her band continue their national GEM tour until the end of November.

Beth Keehn

Find out more: www.meganwashington.com/new-page-4

Photographs by Michelle Pitiris (top) and Kelsey Doyle (lower).