There’s something so special about being in a sold out venue for an Australian queer female popstar who’s just had a number one on the ARIA album chart, especially when you know it’s only one of three sold out shows at that venue for her. But this is the mainstream and commercial success that Peach PRC deserves, and she’s lapping it up on her first national headline tour.
It’s 8pm on a Sunday night and The Metro Theatre is packed. The excited and very well-dressed Sydney crowd are filling up any space they can find as they anxiously wait for the lights to go down. When it’s finally time, the screams are loud, but ecstatic smiles and teary eyes are equally a common denominator when I’m looking around. With the refrain of “Stars Are Blind” playing over the speakers, her guitarist Chloe Dadd takes to the stage as the song merges into “Perfect For You” before Peach PRC appears to a rapturous response. Wearing a pink ensemble with giant fairy wings, she definitely lived up to the pink-memo with the stage draped in pink curtains and fairy lights.
Excitingly thanking the crowd for coming out, she let them know that she’s starting to lose her voice whilst taking sip of a hot tea. Asking them to sing extra loud with her, she apologised for not being able to scream along with them, but finds herself genuinely tempted to just do it multiple times throughout from the high energy the crowd was delivering. As she continued into the set, “Blondes” and “Colourblind” were dedicated to her early “peach pit”, whilst “Symptomatic” and “Kinda Famous” ignited huge singalongs. Bringing it down for a moment, she dedicated “Favoruite Person” to a young girl in the crowd who was attending her first concert, before then performing the hyper-emotional, and forever standout, “Heavy”.
Bringing back the silly energy, “Loved You Before”, “FU Goodbye”, a cover of “Teenage Dirtbag” from Wheatus, and a cover of “Escape” from Enrique Iglesias follows. For the latter cover, she asked the audience to load up the lyrics on their phones and sing along as if it was a pub choir situation, and I was absolutely obsessed with this behaviour. Entering the hits portion of the show, she closed out the set with the impeccable energy of “Josh”, “Forever Drunk” and “God Is A Freak”.
Walking off stage for a brief moment, she returned for one of the campest encores I’ve ever witnessed. Covering “What Dreams Are Made Of” from The Lizzie McGuire Movie Soundtrack, she teleports the audience back to 2003, and it’s the most euphoric ending possible to one of the most wholesome pop shows I’ve been to in a very long time.
Whilst the production was quite simple, Peach PRC held her own and captivated the crowd with her dynamic energy and commanding stage presence, even whilst losing her voice, which reconfirmed why she’s currently one of Australia’s leading pop acts.
Photo credit: Ashlea Caygill