The crowd was quite small for the Jhene Aiko show (3 March), but almost half the ground floor of the Tivoli Theatre was filled with bodies.
But as the lights dimmed and the Himalayan salt candles and tea lights lit up, the venue may as well have been full, with the uproar of welcoming screams that ignited from the floor.
Image © Jann AngaraThe Californian vocalist stepped out, all in white, wearing a midriff and maxi skirt and hair extensions falling halfway down her petite frame. Fronting a bassist who wore sandals with socks, against a backdrop of a tree house and lanterns, Jhene Aiko – child of the universe and chanteuse of cosmic love – seductively and sweetly welcomed Brisbane into her boudoir.
Click here for photos from the show.
Her sultry, high-pitched vocals floated across the theatre with each fan grasping every note and throwing it back at her as best they could. In between songs she charmed the pants off the crowd: from sharing how excited she was to hug a koala for the first time, to speaking about not needing to get high on drugs to have fun: “you can all get high on me tonight,” she told us.
She maintained this fluidity between singing, talking, rapping and dancing throughout the night, which made the 45-minute set fly by. She invited everyone to “be free” with her as she danced to ‘Spotless Mind’; was flailing around on the floor through strobe lights for ‘316AM’.
Image © Jann AngaraShe then checked in with her bandmates: “You good? Good 'cos that’s how it’s post to be” straight into her collaboration track ‘Post To Be’. This song in particular had everyone dancing and yelling out “eat your ass like groceries!”; to which she shouted back “Nasty!”
She shared her full repertoire, which had everyone happy and calling out “one more song!” To which she returned to stage and claimed that was the first encore call they received during her first Australian tour.
Click here for photos from the show.
