Live Review: Boy And Bear, Tia Gostelow, Jess Day

August in Brisbane is buzzing with events! The city doesn’t sleep this time of year and neither do we. Why? Because of the overwhelming excitement of a returning Boy & Bear! The sold-out show invites opening acts Jess Day and Tia Gostelow to warm the crowd up. Jess Day, who admittedly was an unfamiliar name, proves to be a pleasant surprise. Her distinctive vocals are impressive and though distracted audiences are less than engaging, Day provides the perfect mood to ready eager ticket holders for the show ahead. Tia Gostelow, a growing name in the music industry and a staple in the triple j rotation, pulls substantial focus from the crowd, with some evident super-fans excited for her performance. Though undoubtedly talented, tonight's performance from Gostelow has only one notable highlight, her performance of recent Like A Version, We Are The People. 

There’s no question why tonight’s show is so highly anticipated, Boy & Bear returning to our stages after a turbulent few years both personally and professionally. Australia is ready and waiting for them, and what better way to return than kicking off a world tour at The Tivoli in Brisbane? An almost distracting element of tonight’s gig is the audience - it has pulled a confusing array of demographics, from elderly couples, young couples, parents with their adult children, and some of the rowdiest groups of people we’ve seen at a Tivoli show. It’s an extremely bizarre mix, but will hopefully prove for an exciting night.

An electrifying start to the show, Boy & Bear triumphantly deliver Old Town Blues, Milk & Sticks and Three Headed Woman, frontman Dave Hosking looking so at home, as though he has never left the stage. He introduces a new track Work Of Art, which has an interesting twist of electric influence fused with the Boy & Bear sound we know and love. It’s well-received by the audience, who grow more excited as the show progresses. 

We hear Bridges, Harlequin Dream, Part Time Believer - each well-known track encouraging a singalong from the boisterous and surprisingly wild crowd. Soon enough Hosking and his band head off stage for what is an obvious encore exit, very shortly returning and confessing it’s the first time the band has ever participated in the cliched gig move. They finish the night with a few more songs that include an intimate rendition of the hit Fall At Your Feet. The performance pulls at the heartstrings of the audience swaying in unison. It gets better with Hosking managing to sneak a bit of Neil Young’s Old Man into the performance. We finish with the high energy Southern Sun before the boys bid the crowd farewell. 

There is no way to fault the performance from Boy & Bear tonight. It flawlessly reignites the flame of their professional career, and with a long tour ahead of them, it can only get better from here.