LIVE REVIEW: Vera Blue, Northeast Party House, GRAACE & Stace Cadet – Factory Summer Festival

Factory Summer Festival sure knows how to create a good vibe. So far their three week Brisbane residency has been full of energetic shows, lots of dancing, huge singalong’s, and much needed drinks with friends. Closing out their second week of festivities, they had one of their most star-studded lineups yet with Vera Blue, Northeast Party House, GRAACE, and Stace Cadet giving the SOLD OUT Brisbane crowd a night to remember.

Kicking off the evenings proceedings, rising producer Stace Cadet had the fire and c02 cannons getting a workout with his rave inducing material. The crowd were immediately on board and ecstatically dancing along with him, enthusiastically sung along to his recent smash hit ‘Energy’, and were even chanting for more after he left.

Bringing a shift in mood, GRAACE delivered a reflective set of emotions that intertwined a steady danceable aesthetic. Opening with her debut single ‘Kissing Boys’ she had the festival vibes immediately present before sliding into recent single ‘Body Language’ and a cover of Frank Ocean’s ‘Thinkin Bout You’.

Thanking the crowd for coming out early, she explained how excited she was to be there as she had to quarantine and get a COVID test to be able to play. And she didn’t hold back from making it all worth it with firework sprinklers going off during ‘SOS’, a special guest performance of ‘Hard To Say’ with I.E, an emotional singalong to ‘Last Night’, as well as a performance of her Like A Version rendition of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Complicated’. Closing out her set with her mammoth Hayden James collaboration ‘Numb’, she had confetti filling the air with everyone’s smiles from ear-to-ear while she said goodnight.

Keeping the momentum building Northeast Party House were definitely not holding back from bringing the party vibes. The Melbourne six-piece opened their highly energetic set with ‘Any Given Weekend’, and didn’t look back with ‘Magnify’, ‘Fake Friends’, ‘Lose Control’, ‘Dominos’, ‘For You’ and ‘Shelf Life’ following suit. The strong set was highlighted by the use of three different cowbells, which made me realise that cowbells may just be my favourite instrument? I also came to the conclusion that all artists doing live shows should include at least one cowbell moment going forward.

Announcing to the crowd that this is the first time they’ve been able to play songs from their third studio album ‘Shelf Life’ since it’s come out because of the pandemic, they expected the crowd to go hard with them, and they obliged. Closing out their set with ‘Your House’, ‘Calypso Beach’ and ‘Youth Allowance’, they covered the crowd in confetti and simultaneously had every member of the audience drenched in sweat. A job well done really.

Vera Blue was THE queen of the night, and she made sure you knew that from the very second she walked out onto the stage to the flashing LED lights, and the opening synths of recent single ‘Lie To Me’. Taking off her sunglasses after the fierce opening, she immediately decided to hit you in the feelings with the emotional ‘Settle’ and the loved up ‘Hold’.

The strong choice of setlist maintained the momentum throughout the hour and saw her providing big festival singalong moments through tracks like ‘Private’, ‘Like I Remember You’, ‘All The Pretty Girls’ and even a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’.

‘Mended’ will always be the perfect festival/show moment and I don’t want to hear any other opinions on this matter. But giving it a run for its money was the energetically propelled ‘Lady Powers’ and ‘Regular Touch’ that segued into the anthemic closer ‘Rushing Back’. With confetti closing out the final moments, she got the crowd to singalong loudly in a special extended live mix.

So as I stated before, Vera Blue is THE queen, and this live show made me even more excited to see where 2021 takes her as a performer and artist because her onstage confidence is growing rapidly. The Lady Powers Tour was my favourite tour of 2018, and this set really brought back so many incredible memories and feelings from that show.

Check out the full gallery captured by Claudia Bill Photography BELOW;