The Audreys Perform Live At The Garden Of Unearthly Delights – Adelaide Fringe Review

The Garden Of Unearthly Delights’ Aurora Spiegeltent, Wed Mar 12 The Audreys’ Taasha Coates and Tristan Goodall are an absolute joy to watch on stage, and in the gorgeous Aurora Spiegeltent it’s possible to be completely and blissfully immersed in their world of fuzzy guitars, plucky banjos, sweet ukuleles, quirky Melodicas and of course Coates’ extraordinary voice. But as much as there is joy in watching them perform – their banter is endearing, natural and always funny – it’s the songs and Coates’ voice that shine. Often mournful, sometimes angry, usually about sex (generally sad sex, as Goodall quipped) the songs paint emotional pictures that are odes to the dark corners of life, the places where we inhabit sadness and nurture it, where we groom our longing and loss. Sounds depressing? Maybe. But it’s not, because the thing about The Audreys is that they do all this with such beauty and grace that it’s impossible for it to be too sad, even in those darkest moments. So much has been said about Coates’ voice that it’s hard to find words that are still meaningful: singular, unique, soaring, sexy, sorrowful, powerful, elegant. All these things are true, and it is one of those voices that finds depth and corners of truth in a live setting that are somehow sanded down in a recording. That is not to say The Audreys recordings are somehow sub-standard, because they are not. It’s just to say that Coates live is something to behold. Playing songs – mostly – from their first and fourth albums, and to a roomful of loyal and doting fans, The Audreys one-off Fringe show is live Australian music at its absolute best. Lynette Washington