Tonight, at the Queens Theatre Adelaide the sold-out crowd was treated to the absolutely fantastic Carla Lippis and her show New Songs for the New World. Carla has come home to her native Adelaide and has already appeared at Fringe at the 27 Club shows and at the opening night of the Lab. One of the best things about this fringe season is the focus on the hidden gems we have in our city and the ability to let them shine

Right from the onset Carla and the band were in brilliant form and after belting out a killer song called The Hard Way the tempo changed suddenly to the jazz-like but gothic atmosphere of Una Danza from her collaboration with Italian band Sacri Cuori. There were many styles played tonight. From Alt-Country, to torch songs, spaghetti western, and James Bond soundtracks to punk it all sounded magnificent to my ears.

My favourite song of the night was the incredibly powerful song called You will be Happy. The energy in Carla’s voice was something to behold. This song with lyrics stating “You will have nothing and you will be happy” echo the comments made recently by the World Economic Forum who stated that this is a possible outcome in the future. This menacing and angry song felt like Carla was channelling The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron. I hope this and many of the songs tonight are released on an album in the future.

The Queens Adelaide venue is an excellent space and I look forward to it staying around for future Fringes. Carla jokingly likened it and herself to a “Tarted-Up shell” and yes, the venue is the oldest intact theatre in mainland Australia (built in 1840) but I see hopefully only good things for both the venue and Carla in the future.

The final song tonight was a kick-ass version of Henry Rollins Liar which was performed by the band and Carla with such passion and power that it nearly tore the roof off of this “tarted-up shell”. Let’s hope for another Adelaide Cabaret performance for Carla this year with this identical set as it was perfect.