Adelaide Guitar Festival review: Lau Noah and Lior
A double bill of guitar-driven singer songwriters saw Lau Noah prove far more than an online success story, while Lior offered a thoughtful cross-section of his past and present.
Social media feeds are full of musical content creators whose talents don’t always translate from fleeting 50-second clips to a full-fledged live performance. Despite most definitely being a viral phenom, however, Lau Noah is clearly a consummate performer. Indeed, her mesmerising hour-long set at her first ever Australian concert appearance was expertly crafted, displaying an excellent sense of narrative, a deep respect for the audience, and a reverent approach to her craft.
Noah’s voice as a guitarist is truly unique, with hints of Joni Mitchell’s open-tuned warmth swelling underneath intricate counterpoints of folk-blues guitar, Bossa Nova chord shapes, and a very subtle jazz sensibility. As a vocalist, she sings with clarity and microscopic precision throughout her extensive range, free from tired pop clichés or heavy vibrato.
Despite this staggering talent, however, she performs as if she and the audience were gathered around a campfire, taking on the role of the folk storyteller rather than a lofty and distant virtuoso. After beginning with a breathtaking performance of her song ‘Que Pasen Cosas’, Noah skipped the usual pleasantries of concert introductions and simply said, “Somebody decided that when adults… when people grow up, they somehow have to stop listening to fairytales. I don’t know why we do that. It’s a very absurd thing.”
From this point, she began to tell her own fairytale, which she wove in between charming anecdotes and stunning renditions of her original songs. ‘Wooden Chair’ came first, a beautiful folk-tinged song, then the moving ‘Letter to the End of Time’, dedicated to her grandmother, who passed away only three months ago. Other highlights included the endearingly confessional ‘Lesser Men Would Call It Love’ and ‘Siete Lágrimas’, and an achingly brilliant performance of ‘If a Tree Falls in Love with a River’. A standout from her set was her delicate re-harmonisation of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’, sung at once plaintively and explosively.
Many of these songs were taken from her album A Dos, a series of duets which she effortlessly adapted to the solo format. In fact, freed from the need to remain in-step with another musician, her capacity for expression and raw emotion often pushed and pulled at the tempo. Noah performed many songs much quicker than they were originally recorded, while regularly slowing down to pause on a heartfelt lyric.
As the lights went up and the interval began, Noah’s sheer technical brilliance and the emotional weight of her music hung in the air long after she had left the stage. Lior rose to the occasion, however, and turned what could have been a run-of-the-mill festival appearance or a dutiful presentation of his latest album, The Blue Parade, into a much more confessional affair.
After opening with the ruminative tune ‘Blackwood Lake’, showcasing a wonderfully fluid vocal and some very delicate 12-string guitar-work, he noted that, despite setting out alongside lead guitarist and collaborator Cameron Dale to make a “cinematic” album in contrast to the “deeply personal” style he and his fans are used to, “looking back on the album… it’s a very deeply personal album. Maybe I just can’t help myself.”
Of course, made for a fitting follow-up to Noah’s set, as the audience were treated to a genuine cross-section of Lior’s artistry in the present moment, rather than a cursory run through a few new songs before giving up of the lion’s share of the concert to bashing out fan favourites from his classic début, Autumn Flow. Indeed, only a few of those songs (such as ‘Sitting With a Stranger’ and ‘Blessed’) made it into the setlist, and they were performed with real freshness – their inclusion was a conscious, artistic decision, not a self-deprecatory apology to the audience for not playing enough of the ones they already know.
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Most notably, Lior chose to leave out his signature song, ‘This Old Love’. Instead, he drew his main set to a close with the first track of the new album, entitled ‘Compulsion’, a long and winding slow-burn of a tune that ended with a huge mournful lead vocal, driven to its peak by a thunderous performance from dummer Miles Thomas. Lior even eschewed ‘This Old Love’ as an encore, instead closing out with a solo rendition of the blues number ‘Satisfied Mind’, with a show-stopping vocal that never undercut the sincerity of the performance.
It was extremely refreshing to see an Australian favourite take to the stage with such a wealth of effort and thoughtfulness, especially when matched in concert with a relatively new face to local audiences. Noah had everything to prove (and did prove everything!), whereas Lior could have simply let his reputation carry him. However, he truly went above and beyond, making for a truly excellent evening of music.
Lior and Lau Noah performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Sunday September 14. Adelaide Guitar Festival continues until October 12.