ANGIE HART
The Toff In Town, Melbourne
Tonight, the Toff is packed with myopic inner-city couples, no one is under 25 and the sense of excited reverence at the prospect of seeing an intimate performance by one of the icons of Australian indie is palpable. With the tables away and friends chattering, it's the perfect place for Angie Hart, formerly the frontwoman of 1990s alternative radio darlings Frente!, to reassert her reign as indie-pop princess over our hearts and minds.
It has also been a long and curious road for Miss Hart, and tonight is a homecoming of sorts with mutual respect blooming from her face and our mouths and hands. Opening with Grounded Bird's opening track Asleep, she adopts the expression she maintains for most of the night: eyes closed, slightly inclining up to the microphone with her hands at her sides. The band (including Cam Butler on guitar and Patrick Bourke on bass), look like they're the last four people left in the library at closing time, and all play with admirable restraint, never letting Hart's voice leave front and centre. With her knee-high socks, patterned dress and great toothy grin, she looks all the world like you would hope her to look, and nothing like that Sarah Jessica-Parker-esque promo shot that has been floating around. "I'm so jazzed!" she squeaks, before setting off into Feel What You Don't. The centerpiece of the set - and album - Kiwi, and First Time are very effective in their use of dynamics (frankly any excuse for Butler being let loose with a guitar for a few minutes is a good thing), particularly the former, which offers the ever-appealing charm of Hart's face when reaching high notes.
The subject matter is pretty hard to miss, My Year of Drinking and the less successful Sand ("I kissed a frog / Looking for God / Is that the craziest thing you've ever heard?") are both giveaways as to why we have this album and this gig now. Closing with Stop Buying Things ("After this, I'm going to get very drunk" she laughs), which is another tour de force of clipped verses and richly textured, higher-pitcher choruses, she encores with single Cold Heart Killer, and a old-time singalong of Bizarre Love Triangle, the New Order song of which her band famously did an acoustic cover in the early 90s. It's good to have her back and see her on such impressive form.