Live Review: Laura Jean, Grand Salvo, Totally Mild

As soon as Totally Mild begin, the relaxed crowd gets swept into their candid melodies with casual, no frills feel. Grand Salvo follow and sweetly serenade us with their easy, breezy lullabies, providing songs that sound so tender they melt in your ears.

The curtains open to reveal Melbourne songstress Laura Jean and her lovely, all-female band. Tonight Jean is launching her self-titled fourth studio album, which was recorded in the UK with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Tracy Chapman). Dressed in a simple summer dress, Jean opens with an a cappella number, seamlessly weaving in vocals with her onstage counterparts. During When I First Brought Him Home, which is mesmerizingly melancholy, Jean divulges a tale about a troublesome kelpie and an owner’s anthropomorphism.

Jean’s deft picking provides the framework for First Love Song that gives space to the piece before violin, piano and drums enter as steady accompaniment. She straps on an autoharp and remarks, “It’s taken me 12 years to get next door,” jovially reminiscing on her past gigs at Bar 303. As Jean tranquilly strums, soft pizzicato violin adds character to Here Comes The Miner, which further probes her deep fascination for canines; the eerie tale featuring a kelpie as recurring motif.

The remarkably catchy single Don’t Marry The One You Love makes an appearance, breaking the sombre atmosphere with a wispy illusion of hope that resides within the anti-love tune. Jean then introduces June, a song about missing family, accompanied by the barest of percussion and violin, which is strummed ukulele-style so as not to intrude on the piece. Closer A Mirror On The Earth is autobiographical, with Jean reflecting, “I felt more like an accident, than a surprise”. We are bid goodnight with this kiss of blissful sorrow.