Fever’s Candlelight Concerts have taken the world by storm, you’ve probably seen the incredible scenes from them on social media, and with the intimate themes and stunning visuals they’ve attracted crowds from around the world. Usually they provide new demographics to experience classical music by the world’s greatest composers, however in February this year, they teamed up with Australian ethereal pop sensation ‘JOY.’ as well as the Melbourne based string ensemble ‘Eclective Strings’ to illuminate theaters and halls across the east coast for three very special performances.
The Brisbane performance was the third and final night of the tour and was held at The Princess Theatre in Woolloongabba and it was a special home show for JOY. as well. It was also the first time I had been to a concert at the venue since it was purchased and refurbished by the owners of The Tivoli, Steve and Dave Sleswick. Having passed the venue many times before yet never heading inside before, experiencing it for the first time with candles lighting up the venue was serene and reminded me of the Seasoned Super Club hosted at The Tivoli a couple years back.
Upon arriving at The Princess Theatre, you could see LED candles flickering down the side and past the bar towards the stage, the house lights were dimmed and the atmosphere was warming from the lights dotted around the venue. I was then shown to my seat towards the front in the third row and the stage became the center of attention. On it was a Nord keyboard, two different guitars, four music stands and an intentional placement of candles surrounding it all.
After a little wait to make sure everyone had arrived and were seated an MC from Fever took the stage to thank everyone for coming and to start off the night with an acknowledgement of country. JOY. then took the stage, and complemented the warm atmosphere in the room with a beautiful yellow and gold outfit. She started off the night with ‘Out of Love,’ a song that I had been playing on repeat in 2022 so it was beautiful to hear it performed in such a delightful and raw way. JOY.’s celestial voice reigned through the theatre and the venue was in absence of any murmurs and made the intimate night even more special.
Four songs in she stands up from the keyboard and picks up the acoustic guitar and begins playing ‘Alone on the Moon.’ Throughout the first half of the night there was a backing track playing with a couple other instruments however for this song it was much more obvious that it was there due the dancy bass that complemented the live guitar and vocals, during the song I looked around and there were multiple people close by to me dancing in their chairs, including the lady in front of me who was getting real into it, if the night was not a seated affair then I could imagine the whole room be swaying to this one.
The end of the song marked a changeover moment in the room, acoustic guitar went down, electric guitar came up and JOY. welcomed ‘Eclective Strings’ to the stage. Starting off with a piece to introduce the strings ensemble to the crowd a cover of John Mayer’s award winning song ‘Edge of Desire’. With the strings now in action the theatre just felt so much more full. My most treasured concerts that I have been to have combined classical with contemporary pop and the violin is one of my favourites. In the theatre they provided such a richness and colour to the sounds. Following the cover, JOY. returned to the keyboard.
This second half of the night with the beautiful strings ensemble was then followed by ‘Think About It,’ ‘Depends On’ and ‘Change’ before a little interlude where JOY. spoke to the audience for a little bit, this was the first time she has spoken during the night, being the home show JOY. gave special shoutouts and thanks to her family who were in the audience as well as everyone else who had turned up to watch and listen to the performance, like her name, her tone when speaking was joyous. She spoke about the event “I love candles, and I love music as well, so this is such a good pairing. Thank you Candlelight Concerts for inviting me and putting these shows on.” She then introduced the last song of the night ‘House’ It was a beautiful and ethereal note to end the set on. The brightness of the strings surrounded JOY.’s heavenly voice captivating the audience.
Thank you to Fever and Candlelight Concerts for organising such an incredible lineup of shows. It will live on as an unforgettable night.