Katy Steele brought the banter along with reworked versions of her solo songs, beloved Little Birdy hits, and covers from her latest album Undressed to an intimate setting at Lefty’s Music Hall in Brisbane on 7th May.
The show started with local solo artist Mou. He managed to keep the audience quiet while he played an electric guitar and all that could be heard while he played was noise from a cocktail shaker at the bar. Towards the end of his set he encouraged the audience to check out his music but quickly followed up with “Or don’t… I don’t really care – well, I do care, but I don’t want to tell anyone what to do.”
Katy Steele, accompanied only by musician Jesse James, started the set with “Diamonds” from her solo album Human. The light bounced off her metallic silver shorts as she commanded the stage and moved her arms around in time with the music. Steele picked up an acoustic guitar to play “Signal to You”, also from Human. This version is very different to the original, which has more layered instrumentation, and hearing it played with only an acoustic guitar and keys helped to accentuate the meaning in the lyrics and allowed Steele’s unique vocals to be the focus.
The acoustic guitar stayed for “Beautiful To Me”, which was played in a lower key at the start of the song before switching back to the higher key for the end. James played the melody on keys while Steele played rhythm guitar which made it sound like a relaxing lullaby. Steele asked the audience to clap and sing along during the last chorus but added “OK you’ve gotta clap in time, guys!”
The audience slowly became more animated, with some members dancing in front of the stage to the cover of Patti Smith’s “Because the Night”, and Steele’s solo songs “Honest With Me” and “Feel So Bad.” The cover of “Ben” – that Steele reminded us was NOT written by Michael Jackson – spurred a mass singalong, as did the Little Birdy favourite “Hairdo.”
Between songs, Steele shared that she is 54 days sober and joked “This is an AA convention tonight!” Later in the set, Steele and James spoke about oversharing at their Melbourne show and not wanting a repeat of it in Brisbane. They did not succeed. Steele told us they had a pack of $1 underwear from KMart in their gear just in case she had an accident from being nervous about performing while sober, even though she wouldn’t want to put them on her “giney.”
More banter ensued when a couple carried a sleeping child out of the venue through the crowd, and Steele exclaimed “Oh! There’s a kid here! Made me miss my kids for a second, but… as soon as you get home you get a bit over it don’t you?” Before the second-last song of the night, “Come and See Me” from her 2023 album Big Star, she asked “Does anyone know this song?” when no one responded she said “Oh, great, what a great choice for the second last song!”
Hearing the songs from Undressed in such a small setting, and to see Steele thrive on stage as she played different instruments was a privilege. After she played “Stay Wild” – a song usually played on guitar – on keys, Steele showed her relief that she managed to get through it without mistakes by getting up and bowing. I doubt anyone in the audience would have cared even if she had made mistakes, as it was a stand-out of the set.
Steele and James finished the night with the new, slightly lower, version of “Relapse.” Based on the way the audience were smiling and singing every word, it’s a song that still resonates decades after its initial release.
Katy Steele’s Undressed tour continues in Canberra and Perth. Find ticket information HERE
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Header image credit: Justine McNamara
