Live Review: Kim Churchill, Ayla, Taj Ralph

A wave of positivity hit Hobart shores on Friday, with a wealth of fresh indie talent and Kim Churchill at his brilliant best.

With spring upon us, it's only fitting that Hobart was treated to some bright new talent. Kim Churchill chose supports for his Weight_Falls tour that typified the colour, hope and energy of his own music. Taj Ralph kicked things off with a cheeky smile and a handful of surfy R&B tunes. The crowd responded immediately to the pride and playfulness of the 16-year-old busker from Sydney and grooved to songs like Undone that were coated in smooth bass guitar. It's no wonder why Ralph shone in Unearthed High and went on to collaborate with Horrorshow. Through Night Catcher, Ralph layered lazy refrains over reverberating guitar plucks, which had the growing audience rolling their shoulders and crowding around. Beat The Keeper floated between bow-wow R&B and faraway psych guitar, and the crowd saw Ralph off with warm applause.

To continue the theme of young acoustic talent, The Waratah Hotel was treated to a sunny singer-songwriter by the name of Ayla. Having grown in popularity over the past year, Ayla Briscoe wooed the audience with her rosy lyrics, bare delivery and the bounce of guitar strums. The country vibe stood out without the broad production of her recorded sound, which made each song sound a little less vibrant and distinctive, but the artist's subtle voice made for extremely easy listening and had the crowd nodding along. Standout release Shallow End was delivered with gritted teeth, which gave the sound a real bite. Hailing from the Sunshine Coast, the up-and-comer was overjoyed when the crowd sang along to Wish I Was, and by the time the set concluded the crowd was wonderfully warmed up for the headliner.

Few artists can drum up a crowd like Kim Churchill. So the rumour went, Churchill had been busking in Salamanca before-hand, and the bubbly indie-idol was received with a huge cheer from the crowd when he took the stage. The three-piece broke into the blissful chords of Whole Entire. As the double drums thumped into life for the chorus, every pair of feet left the ground and the three-part harmony had the crowd howling along. The artist's good humour was infectious, with silly grins everywhere. When Churchill asked "how are you doing tonight?" a cheeky punter called out "pretty well, thanks".

Even the set was bright, as Churchill stood among flickering light bulbs against a tapestry of the album cover. The tracks from Weight_Falls had the crowd singing along to the hooks and refrains, like Goes Away and Breakneck Speed, a fusion of bluegrass flourishes and folk-tinged rock. Amidst a storm of drums, many friends formed circles among themselves and pulled silly dance moves. Churchill shared a story about his grandma who, terminally ill in hospital, was approached by a fellow patient who was sure Rosemary was the love of his life. Over her final weeks, the two spent hours and hours together - Rosemary was written from his perspective. When the song stirred into motion, couples had their arms around each other and swayed together. The set concluded with an encore, an unplugged version of Weight Falls, when the crowd fell to complete silence and clicked along with their fingers, before a deafening applause.