Live Review: Jane Badler

Red and blue velvet drapes down around us, stained-glass windows circumnavigate the tent where the velvet ends and timber columns embedded with shapely mirrors scatter the dim light. Small cane-woven, candlelit tables are dappled across the floor and topped with an assortment of bread, cheese, antipasto and sweets. Jazz is in the air; sophisticated-looking people sit down and mingle. The mood inside The Famous Spiegeltent is ambrosial. Then a deep, slow, shattering bass beat thrums out unexpectedly through the room.

Jane Badler appears on stage looking like a black cat, with black gloves, black dress, black heels, a black veil and what looks like cat ears, and everything she wears shimmers. She sings a song with the chorus, “I'm addicted to you”. Most of the songs tonight are from her soon-to-be-released new album, and so song names remain something of a mystery at times, but that's not important, as she is captivating. Her voice is rich, strong and full of character and storytelling charm. She is backed by keyboards and backing tracks; creative, effected guitar sounds; and a percussionist hitting bongos, soft beats, bells, and splash cymbals with great nuance – it sounds great. And all the while, Badler looks sassy and amazing. We are sitting with her personal trainer, who says she works hard: the 59-year-old looks as fantastic as she did when wearing those figure-hugging bodysuits as an actress in sci-fi series V in the '80s. When she sings lines like, “I want to French you/I want to make love to you on the floor”, we know she has a lucky husband.

She sings an older song, Four Corners To My Bed, written with Jesse Shepherd of local act SIR. Then a disco ball lights up and the tempo rises as she walks into the crowd to sit on an unsuspecting man's lap. She speaks between songs about her family, her band, the artistic path and how she wants to invite us all back to her house. She is a lovely and warm person and this is all natural to her. Her gloves and veil are off now to sing an '80s rock-inspired number about fame and vanity. She kisses the microphone, “mtua, mtua, mtua”, smiles with big eyes, opens her arms, turns and walks off rubbing her hair with her wrists as the band keep playing. She returns alone to finish with a song on piano. Badler has shown her great talent as a singer and performer tonight, matched by her great personality and charm. We look forward to the new album and dreams of Diana.