Live Review: Alex The Astronaut, Stella Donnelly

The jaw-dropping co-headline tour of Alex The Astronaut and Stella Donnelly hit Hobart shores on Tuesday night, sold out and rich with timely social messages.

Blues, played well, invites the audience to dive into the anguish of the artist. Fast-rising local support Kat Edwards epitomised that piercing vulnerability in her opening track, Sunk. Edwards killed every conversation when her vocals resounded over the clamour of voices. Edwards' soulful brand of acoustic blues and folk held the crowd in place as she crooned through the melancholy Stranger In My Room. Her lyrics, a sombre reflection on starry-eyed romanticism and self-destruction, had audience members swaying along. It's a perfect sense of isolation which makes you feel like the only person in the room, watching Edwards under a spotlight. Her cover of Margaret Glaspy's Anthony signals bright things to come for the artist, who left her audience wanting more.

Without fanfare, loveable storyteller Alex The Astronaut flooded the sold-out Republic Bar with euphoric vibes. The Sydneysider, Alexandra Lynn, had instant rapport with the crowd, who loved her joke, "I didn't know this many people lived in Tasmania." She shared a quirky and self-deprecating story of appearing on Google Earth pulling an embarrassing face, and of once being forced to say no to a crowd member who proposed to her. Lynn's joyful strumming was punctuated by silly comments like, "There's a piano solo at this bit, but we couldn't fit it on the plane," which had people grinning along with her through William And Georgia. Lynn shared that she was scared to release her timely semi-autobiographical hit Not Worth Hiding when the marriage equality plebiscite became hot news. The audience obviously connected with her story, when she earned a rapturous 90-second ovation.

Despite being a hilarious act on stage, Lynn, a Maths and Physics graduate, is no fool. Her blissful approach to songwriting embraces the good in the world, sharing Lynn's love of life and people, like her upcoming track The Happy Song, which had the crowd chanting along. Lynn had a message for the music critic who tried to pick holes in her music for the sake of it, though it can't be repeated in a family-friendly publication. But indeed, the joy that comes from celebrating music eludes the needlessly critical. These messages hit home with her rose-tinted and evocative I Believe In Music.

Stellar and astronaut go together, and so it is with Alexandra Lynn and her tour partner Stella Donnelly. Donnelly and Lynn collaborated on Peter Bjorn & John's Young Folks, alternating verses and striking the occasional sweet duet. After their rave reviews at the BIGSOUND festival, the two shared they had a mutual appreciation of the irony and candour in each other's music. They also love to have fun, with a singalong of Jimmy Eat World's The Middle. Lynn left the stage to strong applause.

The insightful social commentary that underlies Stella Donnelly's music was encapsulated immediately. The Perth musician immediately had several doting members of the audience in the wings, singing along to every lyric like back-up singers.

Donnelly noted that it's easy to look away and ignore conversations about sexual equality and sexual abuse, but that it was so important that people listen. She described a girl who was questioned about being drunk and alone when she revealed she had been abused. Donnelly wanted to do these stories of abuse justice in her music, and she did. That composed aggression shone through in Boys Will Be Boys, with her breathy voice and lullaby guitar a striking complement to the devastation the song describes.

Donnelly coped well with a rowdy crowd featuring a singalong cover of Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time. The crowd were like a choir through the brooding track Mean To Me, and her new track Talking. Donnelly was taken aback at the deafening chant for Mechanical Bull. It was no surprise when the crowd flooded the merch stand at set's end.