It has been a quiet couple of years, but Brisbane local Sahara Beck is back with a brand new EP, and a fresh tour to go with it. We shot down to The Foundry on Friday night to catch her first show of the tour.
The trend of artists having walk on songs continues, and grows even more bizarre, thanks to Sahara Beck. The lights went down, and musical oddity Tiny Tim came on. We made it through the first verse of his now infamous cover of "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight", before Sahara walked out.
Wrapped in a shimmering body suit, that is best described as ‘like really shiny’, Sahara surprisingly opened with ‘Spinning Time’, a track off her previous EP, Panacea.
If you have already had a cheeky listen to the new EP and dug it, you are in luck, as the set featured every single song from the record.
‘Don’t Over Think It’ sounded like it was cut straight from the album and ‘21st Century’ was carried by Sahara’s vocals in the later half, as the live show simply couldn’t replicate the significant number of instruments used in the climax of the song on the album.
On the origins of ‘21st Century’, Sahara said that the song had existed in some form for around a year and a half, and had originated from an article she had read about how we are “killing the environment, fucking it up”. She also described an oddly specific incident about a forgotten coffee keep-cup, which I can only assume is an ongoing source for her environmental guilt.
The show was a quite the family affair, with not only Sahara’s brother on keyboard, but her mother also outside working the merch desk. Her brother has a pretty rough gig considering ‘I Haven’t Done A Thing Today’ describes him as “an alien”. Imagine copping that every show on tour.
His name is Ocean, which is kind of rude considering his older sister got a specific desert, and he only got an unspecified body of water. I’d also like to take this opportunity to confirm that Sahara is not a stage name. Yeah, I double checked. My parents were not nearly as creative.
‘Here We Go Again’ was followed up by ‘Nothing Wrong With That’, a song described as being about those times you are chasing after someone, but they must be fleeing if you are doing the chasing.
‘I Don’t Want To Break Your Heart’, a real oldie from Sahara’s 2014 EP Bloom, was a friendly reminder why inviting your high school friends to your gigs can both the best and worst thing you can do. Powerfully enthusiastic, but embarrassingly rowdy.
‘Queen of Hearts’ rounded out Sahara’s own music for the night, which saw Ocean get up from behind the keyboard to bust out the tambourine and drummer DJ getting a cut of some solo action.
For the last track, it was a tidy, stripped back cover of Lizzo’s ‘Cuz I Love You’. Certainly a controversial pick, but I think Sahara described it best when she said “People don’t like when you do a cover for the final song, but fuck ‘em”.
Sahara Beck is still rolling round the country, and the new EP is out for a listen, so, be sure to check her (and Ocean) out either on stage or online.
