Tonight I attended the first of three sold out shows by Olympia at The Gasometer Hotel which are occuring over the next two nights. This was my very first gig since March 2020! Of course during COVID times things are a bit different: smaller audience numbers due to social distancing, early and late shows, and seating on the bandroom floor. The Gaso also has the added bonus of a retractable roof to assist with ventilation.
Opening the show this evening was Taylah Carroll, who played her set solo on electric guitar. Her songs were introspective and dreamy sounding, and I think it would be interesting to hear them played with a full band.
Olympia came out wearing a red turtleneck mini dress and started with "Biscuits" before segueing into "Somewhere To Disappear," both off her debut album Self Talk. Alternating between electric guitar and keyboard she played songs from all her releases, including "Atlantis" off her first EP, "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things," "Honey" and "Different Cities" from Self Talk, and "Hounds," "Two Hands" and "Nervous Riders" off her most recent album Flamingo.
The show was quite entertaining as she talked about the source material and inspirations for many of the songs, which ranged from films, tv shows and news events to tales from her own life. She also had copious notes printed out to refer to, with one of the funniest moments being a questionable review from Beat Magazine. After listening to these stories it was then interesting to pick up on lines in the lyrics and understand the songs a bit better. Olympia seemed to have kept herself busy during Melbourne's lockdown as she also played a couple new songs and even gave a shout out to everyone who was working from home and keeping the green light on, which I think many office workers could to relate to (myself included).
Here's the video for "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things"
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