Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineSeptember 10, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, forum melbourne, Julia Micheals, Rhys Lewis

Julia Michaels + Rhys Lewis @ Forum Melbourne 04-09-19

Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineSeptember 10, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, forum melbourne, Julia Micheals, Rhys Lewis

words & photos: Daniel Hanssen @danthegigman

Review

“..Wednesday night’s show had so much more than just the music..”

Opening a world tour in the perennial Forum Melbourne, Julia Michaels, the North American singer-songwriter brought a storm of talent to liven up the live music capital on a wet and dreary Wednesday evening.

While the bubbling crowd waited, English pop songwriter Rhys Lewis warmed them up. His set was an emotive one, with his high, spiritual voice sitting alongside the keys and guitar accompaniment. His opening set was an excellent platform for the rest of the evening laying the foundations on early, the set list itself leaned itself to his Melbourne fans, with favourites such as “Better Than Today”, “No Right To Love You” and “Be Your Man” causing the crowd to burst out with screams and cheers.

The Grammy nominee put on a performance to be remembered for her adoring fans, who were lining up for hours and stacked up around the streets of Melbourne before being let loose inside of the theatre.
Julia Michaels was a whirlwind on stage with the release of her two part album & aptly named Inner Monologue’s tour getting underway at the Forum. Her boisterous personality and seemingly limitless energy were unfazed through her ninety minute set, bouncing around the stage & dancing around with her backing band.

The set was amped from the beginning, with a fair majority of the set built off the back of the album tracks. "Anxiety", "Apple" and "Falling For Boys" all made hefty impacts with the crowd as the top charting artist stepped off the Forum’s main stage and into the wild pit for a few songs. Standing on what essentially seemed like a barrel, Julia truly wanted to express her wish of making the opening night of the Inner Monologue tour something special and too demonstrate a closeness to her fanbase.

The magic of Julia’s performance is not necessarily in her talent as an artist, but is felt in it’s sheer honesty; not only does she pride herself on the energy and songwriting ability she brings to her performance space, but Wednesday night’s show had so much more than just the music, full of quirky anecdotes, stories of bad relationships and a ukulele thrown in for good measure.

The run through to the closing track saw Julia shift away from the recent album release and back to the classic favourites of her adoring fans with “Uh Huh” from Nervous System and “What A Time” leading into the night closer.

Julia closed out the evening with the track that kicked off her career, "Issues". Announcing it as the final track of the evening brought both cheers of joy and sadness and Julia bundled her way through the final track to a crowd fully invested, singing and dancing in the Forum's pit.