Live Review: Iron & Wine

It was an elegant but friendly affair on Wednesday night as Sam Beam, best known by his moniker Iron & Wine, joked around like old friends with his audience at the Sydney Opera House before diving into an array of spine-tingling songs from his decade-long catalogue.

Aided by a five-piece backing band (all with varying, impressive levels of facial hair) Beam launched into a number of older tracks including Sunset Soon Forgotten and Boy With A Coin. The addition of the backing band meant an interesting reworking of some of these older songs. There was a definite shift at times from the soft, hesitant melodies many have come to know as Iron & Wine's distinct sound to an almost jovial, Motown influence. This shift worked well on some songs – the accompanying accordion on God Made The Automobile giving the song an extra bounce – but on others the shift felt somewhat redundant.

After a show-stopping rendition of Passing Afternoon, where the band was really utilised in a slow build-up under Beam's whispered lyrics, he took to the stage unaided. You know the saying 'less is more'? Well, this was a great example of that. From the painstakingly humble The Trapeze Swinger to the rustic Waves Of Galveston, Beam's lone vocals took on a lovely fragility that seemed to smother the captivated audience. Beam's encore performance of Flightless Bird, American Mouth was simply spine-tingling, and the highlight of the night.

Beam broke procedures at one point by offering up part of the set-list to requests from the audience, which resulted in a couple of false starts (especially on Fever Dream) but ultimately added to the endearing nature of his character. With his larrikin grin peeking out from his robust beard each time a lyric was forgotten or a note misplayed, you couldn't help but laugh along with the guy.