Budjerah is first and foremost a storyteller. His debut headline tour captured that raw power behind his words as he stunned audiences with the contrast of his emotional lyrics, and his energetically delivered anecdotes in-between songs. Closing the tour in Brisbane at The Triffid, the journey for the singer-songwriter to play this particular show had been a long one with lockdowns and restrictions seeing the show being rescheduled 3 times.
Walking onto the stage with just a guitar in hand, he launched straight into the soulfully charged ‘Higher’. “How are you guys feeling tonight?” I’m Budjerah, and Im so excited to be here. It’s the final night of my first ever tour!” he gushed. One of the first things that became apparent in the show was just how strong his vocals were. Like he can SING. Truly. From listening to his recorded songs you know that he’s talented, but the nature of just how talented he is was something you don’t quite understand until he’s in front of you with just a guitar and serenading 90 people.
With only 1 EP out in the world, the show included a range of unreleased songs like the impressive ‘Lonely’, ‘Rearview’ and ‘I’m Ready’. He also included some covers like ‘Valerie’ from Amy Winehouse’, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ from Sam Cooke, and the Jazz standard ‘Misty’ from Ella Fitzgerald. His maturity is way beyond his years, and his selections of covers truly showcased that.
Bringing the audience into his lounge room, he told stories in-between each track about the creative process behind the songs, and his new-found life on the road. Introducing a stripped back version of his PNAU collaboration ‘Stranger Love’, he explained that he wrote the song about the book The Little Prince and encouraged the audience to read it if they hadn’t. He was also joined on stage by support act Bronte Eve to perform his recent single ‘Talk’ which felt really special as it was only the second ever time he had performed it live, and was the first time he had performed it with another person.
Closing out the show with ‘Pyro’, ‘Shoulda Coulda’, and ‘Missing You’, the 70 minute set was an intimate introduction to who he is as an artist. It felt incredibly special, and the whole time he was on stage you couldn’t keep your eyes off him as commanded your attention with his raw talent.