Live Review: Banks, Mansionair

Sydney trio Mansionair were a natural fit to kick off the evening’s performances, playing a set of mellow tunes that seemed to resonate well with the sitting audience. Their set included a smooth cover of Future Island’s Seasons (Waiting On You) and single Hold Me Down.

Banks graced us with her presence after a short intermission, being met with cheers as she commanded us to stand up from the pews. She opened with Alibi and This Is What It Feels Like. From the moment she stepped on stage, she owned it, with her stunning vocals sounding even better than on record thanks to the amazing acoustics of the church venue.

Empowering us all, she stated we are all goddesses, exciting the crowd before launching into her track Goddess. The way she sexily sauntered around the stage was infectious, causing most of the audience to dance in ways that didn’t seem appropriate in the church setting – nor did singing Fuck Em Only We Know, but it felt so right.

The confessional nature of her music really came alive in the church setting, allowing the sultry singer to truly tap into the vulnerability of her lyrics, especially in her minimalistic rendition of Warm Water that left no one in doubt of her powerhouse vocals and the talent of her drummer and guitarist. Her interaction with the crowd was authoritative, holding the microphone out to the audience to signal for us to sing; we were injecting energy into the songstress too who said she felt deflated from all her recent touring.

She closed her short hour set with crowd favourites Drowning and Beggin For Thread, returning to encore with Stick, in which she commanded us all to move as she walked down the aisles singing, before thanking her musicians and us and allowing the guitarist to end the night with a phenomenal solo.

Banks truly lived up to her goddess status and put on a performance worth worshipping.