For a usually quiet Tuesday night in Adelaide, there was something beautifully reassuring about the sight of a full house gathered for the Soweto Gospel Choir at the Adelaide Fringe. Midweek crowds can carry hesitation. Fatigue lingers. Attention wanders. Yet inside Gluttony’s Peacock tent, none of that existed. The room was alert, ready and most definitely expectant.

This was my second consecutive year witnessing the choir’s return to Adelaide, and there was a genuine curiosity in wondering whether memory had exaggerated them. It hadn’t. If anything, my memory had been far too conservative...