Lior & Domini @ Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide 23/6/2022

From the start, it is plain to see that we are witnessing something very special and beautiful in this pairing of Lior and Domini Forster. Their voices sound so incredible together and the harmonizing is glorious. Lior is a regular visitor to Adelaide with both his solo projects and his collaborations and by far this show is my favourite side project of his.

There is an obvious influence of Simon and Garfunkel which both Lior and Domini acknowledge immediately after their first song Where Will We Be and they discuss the awkward pun of Simone and Garfunkel that has been mentioned to them after other concerts. I find this style of music to be timeless. They then decided that if you can’t beat them you should join them and they then played a marvellous cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s April She Will Come.

Due to the lockdown, they decided to write and release a whole EP of songs in 2021 called Animal in Hiding, which is a wonderful release. The first song played from the EP is called Gloria and is a poignant story about meeting an elderly stranger who Lior walked home one day.

Lior tells us the story of how he met Domini when she entered and won a Uni songwriting contest that he was a judge for and subsequently asked her to support him on a regional tour of Australia. Lior felt that it would not have been right of him not to let us experience some of what he saw on the day of the competition so he stepped off stage for two songs and Domini performed the magnificent Turn the Light On from her 2017 album Raven and Accolades from her first EP. The favour was returned when Domini later stepped off the stage and Lior did the seminal cover of Satisfied Mind and then his absolutely stunning My Grandfather which he first played live at a previous Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

The concert is an amazing journey during which Lior and Domini speak about the process of their collaboration and the challenges imposed by Covid lockdowns and restrictions. It is significant that they make mention that their complementing vocals work so well that neither can think of singing with anyone else. The final two songs of the set are from the EP, the title track Animal in Hiding and their favourite song Honest Mistake. After incredible applause from the audience, they come back out for an encore and do a version of a Lior song I have loved for a long time, I’ll Forget You originally recorded with Adelaide’s Sia

We are treated to a post-concert meet and greet and signing in the foyer, an indication Lior and Domini understand the importance of connecting with their audience offstage even in these times of social distancing. They tell us that they will be returning to Adelaide for two shows at Ukaria in the Adelaide Hills in November this year. I can not wait!

Adelaide Cabaret Review By Richard De Pizzol