A Thelma Plum hometown show is always special. There is just something about her crowds that feel warm, comforting, and overwhelmingly nice. It’s a safe space, and that is something the Gamilaraay singer-songwriter has always strived to create. Following the release of her ‘Meanjin EP’, she brought the visually charged songs to life on stage in the city they’re all about.
The excited crowd packed in tight at The Tivoli as they stood in awe during Jem Cassar Daley and GRAACE’s sets, and danced along to Lenny Kravitz’s ‘It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over’ while it blasted over the PA before the lights dimmed. Walking out onto the stage to ‘The Brown Snake’ which felt like the perfect way to open a Brisbane concert, she had the crowd immediately entranced. Gliding in-between songs from her debut album like ‘Not Angry Anymore’, ’Don’t Let A Good Girl Down’, ‘Woke Blokes’ and ‘Homecoming Queen’ with older tracks like ‘Dollar’ and a Powderfinger cover of ‘These Days’, the show truly felt like it was in a greatest hits arrangement. But the real reason she was on the road was to put a spotlight on the new EP and she candidly told the stories behind them, and performed songs like ‘When It Rains It Pours’, ‘Baby Blue Bicycle’ and ‘The Bat Song’. But it was especially the lead single ‘Backseat Of My Mind’ which felt like a new set highlight with its anthemic arrangement.
She also wanted to perform some unreleased material and tease the audience with more of what’s to come, and she did that with ‘I Don’t Play That Song Anymore’ and the tear invoking ‘Golden Touch’, which felt like a raw Adele inspired ballad The goosebumps covered my body while her lyrics pierced my soul.
Steering the crowd into the home stretch she closed out the show with ‘Better In Blak’ and the encore ‘Clumsy Love’. From start to finish the show was a warm and joyous celebration of an artist who has become one of Queensland’s biggest music exports, and will continue to grow and share her story.