The Royal Jellies- Brunswick Music Festival

The Brunswick Music Festival has been running for the past couple weeks and tonight Belinda joined me to see The Royal Jellies play at The Spotted Mallard on Sydney Road.  This was my first time inside the venue and the band room is actually quite cute and a good size.  The opening act was Aluka, a female three piece a cappella group which sounded really nice in the acoustics of the room.

The Royal Jellies played a fantastic set featuring many songs off their debut album Burrows St. Poolside, including "Place In My Head," "Shoot You Down," "Bumblebee," "Isobel" and "Sweet Papa Joe & Maestro Julio."  About two-thirds of the way through the set some people went up to the front of the stage to start dancing and were quickly joined by others once they played a cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" with Annabelle from Aluka on lead vocals.  I don't think I ever thought I would hear a jazz/swing version of that song!  The crowd wouldn't let them finish their set without an encore so they played a couple instrumentals that had everyone dancing and "Scotch and Coke" off their first EP.  It was a really fun evening in a lovely venue and always a joy to see a group of talented musicians play live.

Here's the band playing "Place In My Head" last year on ABC Radio National: