Posted by Danni Le Toullec on April 10, 2011
Fresh from their March tour of the US and appearance at SXSW, The Jezabels played to yet another packed crowd at Sydney's Metro Theatre on Friday night.
The band has been pumping the touring circuit of late and fans are lapping it up. Following a busy Summer festival season that saw them tear up the stages at Falls Festival and Peats Ridge Festival and sell out eleven shows on their national Dark Storm tour, lead singer Hayley Mary, Sam Lockwood (guitar), Nik Kaloper (drums) and Heather Shannon (keys) are noticeably more in tune with each other and their sound than ever before.
Not too long ago, I saw them perform in a paddock under a canopy of stars in the Glenworth Valley. This time around Hayley's lofty voice nestled into the more intimate setting and the emotion in "Hurt me" and "Easy to Love" was more tangible, although those high-reaching notes were not easily mimicked by punters attempting to sing along. Sheathed in black, Hayley stalked the stage, her lithe body and liquid movements creating a distinct feline quality.
With barely a beat between songs, The Jezabels played through The Man is Dead, She's So Hard and Dark Storm, their trilogy of EPs to date. The only thing lacking in their performance was banter. This element makes the difference in a live set; making a band really stand out as wanting to connect with their audience and tell stories that you can't hear on a CD.
Coming from a variety of musical backgrounds, they are the first to admit that when it comes to the song writing process, The Jezabels like to take their time. Original, with a sense of humour, their lyrics flirt with drug-fuelled love affairs on "Disco Biscuit Love" and explore the masochistic nature of love on "Hurt Me" and motivations behind it on "She's So Hard".
For those of you who missed the show on Friday, they will be touring Australia for Groovin' the Moo before heading to the UK and Europe in May. Spare moments are clearly few and far between, but in the meantime they will be working on their debut album which will be dropping in September 2011.
the jezabels, ernest ellis, metro theatre, groovin the moo