Live Review: Ellie Goulding – 4th October 2015 – Enmore Theatre, Sydney, Australia
4 min read
“I had to bring that up, because that was just weird” Ellie told the crowd last night at the Enmore Theatre about her recent pre-game performance in Melbourne at the Toyota AFL Grand Final on Saturday. Back on Australian shores and shrugging off a backlash from press, Ellie’s return hasn’t been met with praise and acclaim after performing at the event alongside iconic rock heavyweight Bryan Adams. Due to a technical malfunction that affected the musicians set, Goulding was accused of lip-syncing her way through her performance. But the musician didn’t seem phased in the slightest as she set out to show that she is all about the live experience, blowing the sold out crowd away with a greatest hits style set at the Sydney venue.
More used to arenas and larger scaled theatre performances as well as proving to be a hot commodity on the international festival circuit, the show, which was billed as a one night only performance, swung into motion at a little after 9pm and it didn’t take long for the crowd to be bouncing up and down with the energetic and toned performer as she launched head first into a stellar set that captured the very best of her repertoire.
Opening with a superb rendition of Calvin Harris and Goulding collaborative hit Outside, the track was one of two superbly executed and full throttle Harris collaborations to feature within the setlist with I Need Your Love finding a home in the latter half of the set and transforming the venue into much more of a club than a simple live performance space.
Giving further evidence of her unquestionable talents as a vocal superstar, a songwriter and an entertainer, Goulding swung flawlessly between uptempo thumpers with early career notables like Lights and Starry Eyed and recent hit and early set addition Goodness Gracious sitting assertively alongside power ballad gems like a gorgeously stripped back, piano-led cover of Elton John hit Your Song and a cinematic performance of Joy which was enough to make the hardest of male crowd members a little weak at the knees.
While the musician seemed a little held back in terms of audience interaction; interjecting a thank you here and there and brief conversation once every several songs, her energetic showmanship throughout club-esque numbers garnered the musician with a solid, rapturous applause from her fans and she gyrated and stalked the stage during each number which was enough to get the crowd working up a sweat and a handful of audience members up on the shoulders of their friends.
The hits came out by the bucket-load last night; so much so that the performance felt more like a greatest hits tour than anything else. The musician’s sophomore LP Halcyon and its extended Halcyon Days version delivered some of the sets most prominent assets of the night. A mid-set combination of her most successful Halcyon hits provided the night with its most memorable section with personal favourites Figure 8, Only You and Anything Could Happen nesting within the set back to back. Each of the inclusions were kept true to their original recorded form and were performed with precision and beauty from the talented songbird who gave each number her all – vocally and instrumentally as she pounded along to the tracks on a small set of drums that were positioned next to her mic.
With a new album, Delirium set for release next month, new song On My Mind was met with praise from the crowd as it featured in the encore alongside closing ballad and 50 Shades of Grey soundtrack highlight Love Me Like You Do which shone within the set as Goulding’s vocals soared to fill the quaint venue and lifted the crowd into a state of ecstasy with its infectious pulse and atmospheric melody.
The singer may have taken a blow over these past few days but her performance last night in Sydney should be enough to see those critics being force-fed their hollow criticism. Last night’s show proved that Ellie Goulding is a sheer pop powerhouse and it will be a show that I’m sure will be talked about by fans for quite some time.
Setlist:
Outside (Calvin Harris cover)
Ritual
Goodness Gracious
Animal
Starry Eyed
Stay Awake
My Blood
Your Song (Elton John cover)
Joy
Powerful (Major Lazer cover)
Figure 8
Only You
Anything Could Happen
I Need Your Love (Calvin Harris cover)
Lights
You My Everything
Burn
Encore:
On My Mind
Love Me Like You Do
::: RenownedForSound.com’s Editor and Founder –
Interviewing and reviewing the best in new music and globally recognized artists is his passion.
Over the years he has been lucky enough to review thousands of music releases and concerts and interview artists ranging from top selling superstars like 27-time Grammy Award winner Alison Krauss, Boyz II Men, Roxette, Cyndi Lauper, Lisa Loeb and iconic Eagles front man/songwriter, Glenn Frey through to more recent successes including Newton Faulkner, Janelle Monae and Caro Emerald.
Brendon manages and coordinates the amazing team of writers on RenownedForSound.com who are based in the UK, the U.S and Australia.
