Charlee Watt is definitely a performer with a skyrocketing trajectory, and she is onto a winning combination with the main concepts behind this show: Aussie women in rock, and supporting young regional artists. The concepts complement each other beautifully, as women have typically had to work much harder to be recognised for their talent (particularly in a male-dominated genre such as rock), in the same way that there are much fewer opportunities for young people in the arts in the country.

The band is incredibly talented. Consisting entirely of musicians aged 15-18 from Barngarla Country (Port Lincoln) — except the drummer, an 18 year old from Adelaide filling in for their usual drummer — these kids are definitely ones to look out for in the future. The 9-piece band included keys, two guitarists, bass, drums, trumpet, tenor sax, backing vocals and Charlee Watt on lead vocals. They were well-rehearsed, communicated well as a band and performed with a confidence and stage presence beyond their years. The only thing missing from their performance was a final bow!

The only element marring the performance at times was the sound balance, which was very heavy on drums and lead guitar, and often drowning out vocals and keys except in ballads. In the second set, this improved a little, but it’s a shame this wasn’t corrected during sound check.

The set list, consisting of three sets with short breaks between, is hit after hit by female rock icons: Nancy Bates (gorgeous rendition of I Belong to accompany the acknowledgement to Country), Deb Conway, Killing Heidi, Ruby Fields, Tia Gostelow, Kasey Chambers (a very cool rocked up version of Not Pretty Enough), Wendy Matthews, Helen Reddy, Missy Higgins, Kate Ceberano, The Divinyls, and more. The songs were great, but it would have been even better to have had more of the songs properly introduced, and more information about the significance of some of these songs to the progression of women in rock. This would have given the performance more depth, adding even more meaning to these songs than just being awesome rock songs.

At 2 hours and 5 minutes, this is perhaps one of the longest shows you’ll see at this Fringe. For an evening band gig, this length of time is perfect, especially with bar breaks in between. However, for an afternoon Fringe offering, a maximum of 90 minutes would have been ideal, especially as some people left part way through to get to other shows.

SHE ROCKS is a fantastic initiative of Charlee Watt, and I hope this concept continues to support young artists.