“Deep in the meadow, hidden far away / A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray / Forget your woes and let your troubles lay / And when again it’s morning, they’ll wash away” – Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
It was never tonight, an unassuming Friday, that I believed Adelaide would experience the most beautiful performance of 2026. Tired and weary from previous days, it was never the intention to cross oceans or the Oresund Bridge, yet VOLA appeared and set all afflictions adrift. Upon a sea of splendid music, “for the first time” visitors to our shores, the Nordic mystics washed away worries and gave us so very much more.
In speaking of the PRIMROSE PATH, William Shakespeare said: ‘… Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven’. A warning against treading the pleasurable passage, seeking rather deeper wells of meaning, Perth’s progressive quintet showcases their Propensity for such authentic endeavours. Frontwoman Lindsay Rose’s craft for both healing and Harm intertwined with bassist Scott Henry’s backing vocals, they cast a harmonious HEX. Hypnotically cutting through the Viscera, VOYAGER drummer Ashley Doodkort ascends in antonymous style to Irrelevance, closing the opening act this evening.
A solid beam of light illuminates VOLA’s ventriloquist Asger Mygind as he questions quietly, I Don’t Know How We Got Here. A serene start taken from 2024’s Friend of the Phantom, the stage is set; from this very first moment it’s clear, magic is all around us, dancing here. The penultimate performance of the band’s debut Australian headliner falling on a superstitious Friday, it seems as if VOLA are less playing music and more so enchanting via prophecy. We Will Not Disband but bind with them, Stone Leaders Will Fall, along with our hearts tonight.
These Black Claws of the outfit’s singular Swede, drummer Adam Janzi, suspends his sticks as if strung in puppetry; the viscosity between tracks now accented by a Ruby Pool, pendulously swinging between carnival and orchestra tune. An act of almost impossibility, Alien Shivers creep up my spine as synth specialist Martin Werner bewitchingly bends sound and time. A Helpless Dreamer grateful for divine intervention drawing my attendance tonight, “we’re very thankful”, none more so than VOLA themselves, losing everything to fire mere months ago. They attest that without their legions of loyal followers this would not be possible; this is their offering, in thanks and our reward.
Upon ethereal layers of harmony and light, Adelaide bears Witness to the pure power of Denmark’s 24 Light-Years of musical precision and perfection. Taking IN FLAMES’ place in the Cannibal evisceration, Prim’s Rose, is a vision. Applause of a (not so) Distant Crowd deafening for the cameo, Janzi is singularly lit in enviable green momentarily, a single sun illuminated, alone to Stray the Skies midnight blue around him. Bassist Nocolai Mogensen segueing between front and side of stage microphones, the backing vocalist’s smile beams through the near pitch black, all giving everything they have to Bleed Out the major set.
Syncopating between Straight Lines and unexpected pathways, this performance is truly the very best of the calendar year thus far. Neither audience nor artists wish for the evening to come to a close, so the symphony continues into the night. As an expressive audience member rejoices, “It just sounds so good”, the melancholic proclamations of “our last song” continually stretch to include “one more, if you’ve got it in you?” Happily obliging, to use the amalgam of European translations, we VOLA as ‘they soar’, blithely unaware of the hour or any of the woes which may have befallen us this Friday the 13th.
Adelaide stands as an army of adoring Valentines, as the band finally fall silent and embrace each other, looking out upon the smiling sea they’ve set adrift. The gratitude palpable, on a night which took an aching eternity to arrive, the resounding emotion reflects what it means to be here together and today; all is calm and proper once again in this world, because the power of music has washed all and any worries away.
Live Review By Belinda Quick