Sarah Blasko @ Riverbank Palais, Adelaide 7/3/2019
Sarah Blasko has played all around Adelaide over ywenty times since 2003 and I have hardly missed a show over that time. In my opinion, she never disappoints and her incredible voice sounds as good today as when I first saw her at the Jade Monkey all those years ago.
Sarah is no slave to her back catalogue and tonight she played all but one of the songs from her incredible Depth of Field album that was released early in 2018. A year after its release I believe it is a brilliant album and lyrically it the best of the lot showing both vulnerability and an intense atmosphere. The first four songs tonight are from this album and they sound incredible. The band she has assembled for this tour sound immaculate and Sarah’s voice is both fragile and intense at the same time.
Never Let Me Go is the third song played and my favourite from the album. It’s insistent bass riff and drums really complement her haunting pleading voice at the end of this song, it is almost frightening how intense her performance is here. For a lot of the songs, Sarah is letting us into her personal life and the passion that radiates from her in doing so is absorbing. It is like she is holding us under a spell.
Sarah handles the contrast of the high notes on Heaven Sent to the opening deep notes on No Turning Back with ease. At the end of a few songs, Sarah leans over and slumps like a mechanical doll that has just run out of power. Making It Up and Leads Me Back are played later in the set and both are so intense, personal and indicative of a relationship that has clearly gone wrong. It must have hurt her to write these songs and here she is laying it all out for us to hear.
After a powerful set, Sarah and band come back after the encore and play I Wanna Be Your Man from the Eternal Return album and then ending with the tribal jungle drums of I Awake. What an excellent finale! Early in the set, Sarah said “this is beautiful” and yes it sure was.
Live Review By Richard De Pizzol