Live Review: Shakey Graves, Andy Golledge

Country and blues are two genres which often overlap and offer up a primal appeal to audiences. While Austin, Texas isn’t exactly swampland, it is a southern city like many others, with blue, roots and country coursing through its veins. Shakey Graves is pure Austin, and celebrates what it is to be human. At the Factory Theatre, fresh from Bluesfest performances, he revealed himself as an archly wise storyteller from the get-go.

But first, Andy Golledge waltzed onto stage at 8.30pm while a growing crowd mulled about and sat in the darkness, a sole fan front and centre singing along. A local legend, Golledge sung his heart out as he always does. Songs like 1170 coaxed the audience forward by speaking of a deep longing for acceptance while grappling with a fractured self. His bandmates, Caitlin Harnett and Leroy Lee, added another dimension to Golledge‘s performance which was brimming with confessional and meditative tunes delivered with a unique timbre and cutthrough lyrics.

Then came the main attraction: 31-year-old Alejandro Rose-Garcia, better known as Shakey Graves. The Indie-Americana artist opened with Cops And Robbers, which highlighted his imaginative lyrical storytelling, and foreshadowed the personal yarns to follow. Tomorrow came soon after, a conversation between his 17-year-old and 26-year-old selves, discussing the heartache of love and the cruelty we inflict on the ones we love. Crowd favourite, the triumphant Roll The Bones got the entire crowd stomping and clapping.

Graves' band arrived on the track Mansion Door which marked a departure from the heartfelt and whimsical songs which characterised the first half hour of the set. The full band added a decidedly heavier atmosphere while the song showed off a less country and more indie side of the artist.

Pansy Waltz returned to the bluesy finger-picking and the uproarious chorus that filled the early parts of the set, with a tone that was both pensive and contrarily flippant. The set continued in much the same fashion, with the frontman inspiring laughter and tears in the same breath.