Róisín Bread.
Róisín Murphy is, without a doubt, one of the greatest pop stars of our time. A career that’s spanned over 13 years, Murphy’s unique blend of stage presence, vocal ability and entertainment have always fascinated me. Due to a lapse in judgment, I missed the last time (which would be their actual last time) Moloko toured through Australia for the Good Vibrations festival in 2004, and never forgave myself for it. So when it was announced that our little Raisin would be bringing her multitude of hats down under this year, I was incredibly ecstatic and adamant I would not miss out again.
The meeting of Murphy and 1,000 minds was held at the iconic Billboard Nightclub (though, these days, it would rather you called it Billboard: The Venue,) an old stomping ground of mine which I was eventually, at one point, a staff member of. Over those years I had accumulated a barrel of memories and good times, but never have I had so much fun on that dancefloor as I did with Róisín hovering over me.
First of all, there was no support act, which I found not only brilliant, but very Róisín. Just a DJ playing some songs who was relegated off to the side, audience completely blinded to where he was actually playing from. Double brilliant. After about an hour of waiting around, louder music began beaming from the speakers and I immediately recognised the instrumental house-groove from the “Live At Ancienne Belgique” CD — she was opening with “Cry Baby.”
A coat-rack was made visible to the side of the stage, containing a plethora of hats and various jackets and costumes. I knew there’d be plenty of outfits, but I had no idea she would be changing on the side of the stage! The full-house roared as Murphy’s back up singers (who my best friend Ben & I named ‘Jamelia‘ and ‘Jade Macrae‘ because — no shit — they looked exactly like them) emerged shortly after the band (who were all INCREDIBLY HOT — MY GOD — so many beautiful boys playing instruments!) before Murphy, finally, pranced onto the stage donning a stunning purple hat, a black tailored suit with a white tank top underneath. Knowing full well that her white number was see-through, Róisín enraptured even more hysterical screams from the audience as she began flashing a nipple here and there. Never have I been more excited to see a ladies nipple! Attention was quickly diverted to her pink gloves (remember Rachel’s Gloves™? The same pair, which does pose an interesting question — one that I plan on investigating at some point — as to whether there is indeed a curse behind those gloves? Remember, they were also worn by that Louise slapper. Not very well, mind, but nonetheless, worn,) and her out-of-this-world heels.
“Oh, this is super heel.”
The setlist stuck firmly to the “Live At Ancienne Belgique” format; following “Cry Baby” was “You Know Me Better” (I’m quite hard pressed to pick any handful of ‘best performances’ of the night, but this was definitely one of them,) “Checkin’ On Me,” and “Dear Miami” (outstanding stuff.) “Primitive” followed and, being one of my favourite tracks from the “Overpowered” album, I was one excited punter. Murphy stalked about the stage, singing into the ears of each member of her band as prowled she about, animalistic, just like the song. Eventually, by the second chorus, she found her way in front of me and we both began to spit lyrics passionately at each other. Her gaze stuck with me for the duration of that powerful chorus, before breaking it with the bulging of her eyes. She seemed very pleased with my reaction which is maybe why this behavior occurred another 6 or 7 times throughout the evening. It was around this time she also said that Melbourne was ” a lot more friendlier than Sydney.” You can just imagine the fierce roar that followed.
The recreation of “Sow Into You” was gorgeous and delighted the fans to no end. “Footprints” followed, and The Raisin and I shared another intense-glare moment. “Movie Star” saw another fabulous costume and hat change and, more importantly, the introduction of a chair as dance-routine prop. !!!!
“Scarlet ribbons for my chair.”
“Scarlet Ribbon” and her Handsome Boy Modeling School collaboration “The Truth” followed, with Murphy TOTALLY rocking that rap. Crowd = lapping that shit up. Recreating the Moloko classic “Forever More” (one of my very favourite Moloko songs) was an incredibly brave move, and one that completely paid off. Without a doubt, the new Róisín-live-version of that track is THE definitive version. Clocking in at just over 10 minutes, it could have easily gone for 15 and I still would have wished for it to go longer. As she held hands with her back-up singers, singing together and looking lovingly into the audience, reminiscing back on it now, this was probably THE most emotionally satisfying moment of the show. Breathtaking stuff, I would kill to witness that again.
“Checkin’ On Me Arse there Jamelia?”
Next up was her “Let Me Know/Reach” fusion, which — with its unashamedly funky-diva-of-house approach, tore the roof down. Following that was “Overpowered,” another absolute highlight of the show. One of the roadies emerged in the pit below the stage with a giant wind-machine (!), before Murphy eventually returned to the stage in a black, frilly number that totally kicked butt as it swayed, being blown about by so much wind. The strobe light effects throughout “Overpowered” were killer; almost fatal, even. As the 9+ minute version of this acid-303-powerhouse of a song began climaxing, Murphy, already dancing about crazy-like to the strobe lights, turned her incredible white hat/plate into a MOON MASK.
“I am not a doctor.”
Fucking. Amazing. I don’t think I’ve screamed so much in delight in all my life.
Returning for an encore with “Tell Everybody” (another gaze-moment,) and “Ramalama (Bang Bang)” — my absolute FAVOURITE track from her “Ruby Blue” album — capped off a truly invigorating evening in fine form. The night went from strength to strength, as I managed to secure a meeting with Murphy afterwards. We spoke just as she was leaving the venue at around 2:15am, and she was wonderful to myself and Ben. She was too tired to take any photos (for a split second I was annoyed, but realised just how very Róisín it was and totally lapped it up for what it was; her being a hot pop star,) but chatted with us, asked us our names, said she loved seeing us up the front singing along to the songs and, just before leaving, said; “come on then, giss’ a kiss!”
Róisín Murphy kissed my cheek, and I hers. So many levels of ace.
I have always loved this woman, have always dug her musical output, but nothing could prepare me for that show, not even having heard the actual set dozens of times on CD before. This was a proper performance; she could have easily gotten up on that stage and just sung song after song, and, don’t get me wrong, I would have been happy with that. But this was so much more than just a live concert. It was a show; a theatrical performance. Madonna on a budget! I’ve been to a heap of shows before in my years as a music fan, but there has been no show as glittering or outstanding as Róisín’s at Billboard last Friday. It truly was the greatest concert I have ever been to. A world of pop music without Róisín Murphy in it is the type of popworld I do not wish to imagine; we NEED Murphy to keep going, because it’s evident she has so much more creativity to offer.
I was also impressed with the amount of dancing that went on… the girl can move, and she did it so very often!
There are plenty more photos aside from the ones below to come. I took a stack on my friend Clare’s camera (including a very hot nipple shot) after mine temporarily decided to die several minutes into the show, so once I get them I’ll pop them up. In the meantime, this should do you fine. There’s also a rather hilarious review of this very show over on last.fm, in which user AppleKabukiSuri compared the Murphy show with the Jesus And Mary Chain one from the night before. A very good read.
Please credit the website if you use any of those piccies.
Oh, and big shout out to the Murphy-crew for the evening; Ben, Clare, Jo, Krissy (with her tit out,) and Sera - what a night!
