Live Review: Kate Miller-Heidke, Odette

When did Zoo Twilights suddenly boast security personnel more beefed-up than what you'd normally find at a One Direction concert? The once idyllic family picnic on the lawns is now sternly sectioned-off by coloured bunting and signs denoting areas for rugs only or high-backed chairs and there's not a square of grass to be seen between them when we arrive.

Our support act is Sydney-based singer-songwriter Odette, who carries an air of refined musical elegance and confidence as if she's been doing this all her life. It's no wonder since she was brought up by richly musical parents from the UK and South Africa. Her melodic electro-pop tracks are fused with undercurrents of jazz, blues and soul. Layered with recordings of gentle backing choruses and rhythmic hand clapping that's reminiscent of African folk songs, Odette demonstrates remarkable fluidity and economy. Collide is a case in point. Watch Me Read You - a spoken word, partial-rap track she wrote last year - is enigmatic and bold. She's willing to push herself beyond her safety net and it's refreshing to see Odette take challenges so early on in her musical career.

Kate Miller-Heidke instantly elevates the glamour stakes when she takes to the stage in an off-the-shoulder, red-and-black ruffled dress and one of her trademark headpieces. Opening with The Tiger Inside Will Eat The Child is a nod towards her typical wry humour, but there are no sightings of young children fleeing in fear at the sudden realisation that real tigers - albeit surely asleep by now - actually exist only a few feet away.

Often only performing with her trusty husband/creative collaborator/guitarist Keir Nuttall by her side, Miller-Heidke tonight is supported with a string quartet and a back-up vocalist/keyboardist Jessica Hitchcock. Together they lay ample foundation on which to showcase and glorify Miller-Heidke's stunning operatic vocals in numbers such as Sing To Me and a song specially written to mark International Women's Day a couple of years ago, but which is aptly brushed off this weekend: You've Underestimated Me, Dude. The latter is a gently climbing, calculated piece that is pierced at key moments by Miller-Heidke's high-octave vocals and ends with her maniacal, deliciously satisfying cackle. Of her famous vocal riffing in the bridge of O Vertigo!, Miller-Heidke muses, "My friend Ben Law says it sounds like a yodelling ambulance, and a radio listener once said it was like Enya on crystal meth."

"No standing! Ok, everyone, no more standing here - leave now!" one harassed-looking security guard barks at a little crowd of teenage girls who have crept up to stand beside the bins, hoping to catch a close-up glimpse of the angel on stage. Dejected, they disperse. Who could blame them for trying?

When You're Ready, a cover of Tina Arena's song dedicated to her friend suffering domestic abuse, is touching given that Miller-Heidke confides to the audience that she and Arena had met and shared stories of having friends in similar abusive relationships. She even premieres a new song that no one outside of sound check has heard before: a pared-back, acoustic version of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me). Divorced from its familiar R&B rhythms, the song takes on a melancholic, meditative persona.

Although it has been a few years since the release of her last album, Miller-Heidke and Nuttall have been solidly busy. Apart from welcoming a baby boy into their family just under two years ago (Miller-Heidke: "Please, don't congratulate him. He hardly did anything!"), they have also written a full opera based on John Marsden & Shaun Tan's book The Rabbits, from which Miller-Heidke performs two stirring numbers - My Sky and the heart-rending epilogue Where?.  Let's pray that the opera will get a return run soon.

The couple also followed up their prodigious output by writing the majority of the tracks for Muriel's Wedding The Musical. Maggie McKenna, the star of the hit production, makes a surprise appearance on stage to duet with Miller-Heidke on Amazing, one of the songs that marks a key moment in the Muriel/Rhonda friendship. "You're fucking amaaa-zing," they sing, blissfully suspending the fact that censorship and parental guidance exist.

Nuttall once again proves he is no mere second fiddle when he performs an extended guitar jam in Humiliation. With just a one-song encore — the bittersweet The Last Day On Earth - to seal the evening, it is a case of having filled up on too much ambrosia in one short sitting.