An Evening With Bic Runga - MEMO Music Hall

It's been five years since Bic Runga last played in Melbourne, and tonight was the first of a two night run at St Kilda's MEMO Music Hall. Bic started the evening solo on acoustic guitar playing "Drive," "When I See You Smile" and "The Be All And End All" before being joined by her band, which included her partner Kody Nielson on drums. The songs played across the two sets covered material from throughout her career and her latest album Close Your Eyes, which is a mix of originals and covers. I really enjoyed her version of Nick Drake's "Things Behind The Sun" as well as the new original songs "Close Your Eyes" and "Dream A Dream."

Bic played some of my favorite tracks of hers, including "Get Some Sleep" "Listening For The Weather," "Winning Arrow" and "Something Good." We also got some rarely played live songs such as "This Girl's Prepared For War" and "Darkness All Around Us" off Belle, and the Beautiful Collision tracks "Gravity" and "Election Night," which I'm guessing was thrown into the set due to yesterday's UK election.

What really made this show special was the songs that were done with Natalia Mann on the concert harp, which enhanced the arrangements for "Precious Things," "Beautiful Collision," "Birds," "Captured" and "Bursting Through." As this year is the 20th anniversary of the release of the hit single "Sway," it was only appropriate that it closed out the second set. Bic was so happy to finally be able to come back to Australia and was really grateful for everyone coming out to see her. For an encore she attempted an audience request for "Gracie," but only made it part way through as she couldn't stop laughing at the lyrics which she wrote when she was 19 years old. All in all it was a great and intimate show, and hopefully Bic will make it back across the ditch sooner rather than later for another live performance.

Here's the video for "Close Your Eyes"