Sarah Blasko brings her Theremin pipes to Brighton

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Australian singer-songwriter Sarah Blasko gave Brighton’s Green Door Store a perhaps over-generous 17-song set on Saturday, accompanied on all but one song by Benjamin Fletcher on guitar and Matthew Guest on piano – and occasionally hitting the keys/ukulele strings herself.

As well as songs from all three of her solo albums, Blasko opened with ‘Bring Me Back’, a track from this year’s Seeker, Lover, Keeper – a new collaboration with fellow Aussie singers Holly Throsby and Sally Seltmann.

Those present also heard three new songs, which the singer explained they were “just trying out”: ‘Just Like Memory’, ‘Here’ (featuring Swedish support act and frequent collaborator Fred Kinbom on guitar), and the beautiful ‘An Oyster, A Pearl’.

Other notable highlights of the evening included ‘Bird on a Wire’, showcasing Blasko’s Theremin-like high notes, ‘Over & Over’, during which she borrowed a couple of lines from Talking Heads’ ‘Road To Nowhere’, and ‘Sleeper Awake’, one of several tracks betraying what sounds (to these ears) like the singer’s admiration for both Leonard Cohen and Tori Amos.

Blasko was a little on the defensive in Brighton, shooting sardonic quips at the nonetheless welcoming crowd and at one point silencing some overly chatty compatriots at the lip of the stage by warning: “I can hear every word you’re saying.” She also seemed visibly embarrassed by the various bouts of between-song whistling, apparently preferring people’s attention to be concentrated on the music than her striking looks.

‘All I Want’ was greeted with a polite ripple of recognition, and after declining the opportunity to leave the stage and then come straight back on for an encore due to the lack of backstage area – “We could just walk into the wall and stand there like morons…” – Blasko delivered a surprisingly affecting take on Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Xanadu’ (highlight of her recent Cinema Songs covers EP).

Sarah Blasko’s next move after the European jaunt is a tour of Australian churches with Throsby and Seltmann in full support of Seeker, Lover, Keeper – here’s hoping the trio bring it to the UK soon.

Sarah Blasko setlist

Bring Me Back
Is My Baby Yours?
Bird on a Wire
Down on Love
Hold on my Heart
Over & Over
The Garden’s End
All Coming Back
Into Light
Sleeper Awake
We Won’t Run
Just Like Memory
Here
All I Want
An Oyster, A Pearl
Xanadu
No Turning Back