Live Review: Jen Cloher, Flowertruck, Hachiku

Milk! Records shows are always a family affair. The debut of Australiana legend Jen Cloher’s self-titled album was no different. 

Milk’s Hachiku kicked off the evening with her dreamy indie-pop. A self-confessed bedroom producer, Hachiku summon intimacy and delicacy on stage - in a classic Milk! Records move, Hachiku would join Cloher again later for a rendition of Strong Woman.

Sydney’s very own Flowertruck followed up with their sunny, jangling ballads of suburbia. Charles Rushforth manages the tremble, strength and range of a classic crooner. 

Though the evening is all about Jen Cloher, she starts her set with the delicate slow build Hold My Hand from 2013's Blood Memory. It's fitting - the song celebrates the relationship her mother and father shared at the end of her mother's life and on August 25th 2017, narratives of marriage - and marriage equality - are in the air. It's equally fitting that Cloher's partner and lead guitarist Courtney Barnett joins her on the song's bridge, "our love is more, our love is more."

Once the opener hit's its crescendo, the band is in full gear. Cloher is a masterful performer - lithe, confident, cheeky, imminently charismatic - and on stage, the album's apathetic vocals garner full-bodied snarls, snark and drama. 

Behind Cloher, her band is not only polished, but seem to live completely in the music they are performing. Though Barnett is hesitant to wander out from the stage’s shadows, her guitar work is frenetically novel and really just seems to pour out of her. Jen Sholakis on drums is also a formidable force.

Watching them perform together it becomes apparent what good mates they all are - they constantly share smiles, exchange appraisal of each other’s work and banter quietly between sets. It pays off - the result is powerfully warm and mesmerising.