Much to the despise of other cities, once again the "MySpace Secret Show" bandwagon hit Sydney, this time with the premiere Australian appearance of Welsh songstress Duffy, alongside Sydney’s Andy Bull. But with this being nothing more than a promotional stop, probably just to "sign on the dotted line" for her V Festival and Sydney Opera House appearances, one has to ask the question: Why bother performing at all?

The support act was painful, played for longer than Duffy, and while Duffy's talent did shine through in parts, ultimately the 20-minute-or-so set was a pale comparison to the show she is capable of. Such comes down to the backing band, of which this is clearly the "el cheapo" version, complete with badly mixed backing tracks, all put together on what isn't even the real stage in the Metro. So again, I have to ask the question: Why bother? And no, being "free" isn't any excuse.

This event was yet another example of MySpace desperately trying to stay culturally relevant, placing "exclusive" opportunities ahead of quality, picking an act such as Andy Bull as they pretend to be "hip and cool" as to what are the up-and-coming talents in the country... most likely based solely on the hits of 13 year olds. Who, let's face it, are now MySpace’s primary user base since the explosion of Facebook, and aren't allowed to attend these concerts anyway! Armed with nothing but a keyboard and a voice that sounded nothing of his own, but rather borrowed from the Michael Jacksons of this world, Andy Bull's performance came off contrived, boring, repetitive and ultimately unlistenable. I'm sure the kid has talent, but he wasn't showing it off here, and MySpace come out of it showing just how out of touch they really are.

By the time Duffy came on, the crowd was ravenous for her performance - and so they should have been... some had been waiting all day! Opening with "Stepping Stones", she played for no more than 25 minutes, tearing through 5 tracks off Rockferry, and it was only set-closer "Mercy" that came off as energetic. Thanks to the el cheapo backing band, the rest of it sounded pretty dull. Thankfully, Duffy's charisma and rapport with the audience saved the show from being a total waste. But judging by her banter, I don't even think she knew why she was doing this. After all, she did just have a pre-sale of a show at the Sydney Opera House sell out in seconds... and those fans clearly weren't in attendance here. And rightly so. While the Franz Ferdinand gig a couple of weeks ago provided something unique for fans which fit neatly into the context of their ongoing tour (i.e. the public display of a sound check), here the whole exercise seemed ultimately redundant, failing to show off her true talent (and she is a fantastic singer and songwriter), with what I'm sure is otherwise a decent support band.

Either do it right or don't bother at all, you have more than 13 year olds to impress at these things.