Live Review: Alex Gow & Dan Kelly, Angharad Drake

A stage without drums is a rare and clean sight. Brisbane singer-songwriter Angharad Drake is standing under the spotlight upstairs at Woolly Mammoth, singing about haircuts and burning houses down. Her voice is impossibly light, resembling something close to birdsong. Her fingers flutter over the stings of her acoustic guitar as she sings Meddling, Down and Majesty to a small but enraptured audience. “When I stopped dreaming all my dreams came true,” she sings, although her set feels like a dream we’d prefer never end. 

It’s a weeknight this evening, and Alex Gow doesn’t want to waste time. He’s on stage in a moment, looking resplendent in a leather jacket. “Feeling tough, feeling tender,” he says, greeting the audience with his usual charismatic charm. The man is in the business of making people feel emotions, and he’s brought a briefcase full of them tonight. Beginning with Lady Eucalyptus and Iron Cross, he looks like a waylaid character from Twin Peaks, serenading a lonely nightclub underneath the purple lights. 

Dan Kelly is no stranger to ballads or humour, only he generally prefers to combine them both. He joins the stage to the sound of pre-recorded applause, playing guitar and singing backup vocals on Sandy. He then blesses us with his own beautifully emphatic Baby Bonus and Ex Bandido, before involving the crowd in helping out on the blissful chorus of Everything’s Amazing.

There’s been a fair amount of sound bleeding from the room downstairs all night, and Kelly pauses here for a moment to explain what’s happening. “Downstairs is the worst band in the world; I booked them myself, just for the juxtaposition.” 

He slides over to play a cheap keyboard the pair bought from a local thrift shop this morning, while Gow slips into the sultry rhythms of Drums and road-tests a new driving song called Get On, which feels like unexplored territory for the singer. 

The pair’s harmonies really come together on Kelly’s On The Run, although Gow’s Deep Heat functions in its usual role as a showstopper, with an added harmonica melody making it the most Dylan-esque he’s sounded all night. Feeling impulsive, he then treats us to a debut live performance of another new selection named Solitary Woman, featuring lyrics about love, cigarettes, and abattoirs. Somehow, it’s the perfect combination.

Kelly’s back for their final few songs together, and he introduces Never Stop The Rot as a song inspired by couples fighting while they’re travelling. “The guy is usually wearing a Kathmandu jacket,” he quips. Things only get weirder and more fantastic from here with Bindi Irwin Apocalypse Jam, another new track from Gow with a falsetto chorus named Hot Topic, and the windmilling Dan Kelly’s Dream. We’ve reached the end of the night; Gow is wearing white gloves and two pairs of sunglasses, Kelly is crouched over an effects board, massacring sounds, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.