Deborah performed her first Melbourne gig for two years (or thereabouts) in a warm up gig at the Dan O’Connell in Carlton. She wasted no time demonstrating that she has gone from strength to strength as a performer.
Deborah and Willy Zygier were joined on stage by a drummer, bass, and synth player (sorry, I didn’t remember their names in all the excitement.)
They started with All of the Above and Only the Bones. Although not in this order, she then played The Way You Look Tonight, Release Me, Adultery, Hole in the Road, Alive and Brilliant, 2001 Ultrasound, Here in My Arms, Bag of Sweets, Everything You Want it to Be, It’s a Girl Thing, It’s Only a Dream, and Man Overboard.
While the place was packed it was painfully obvious that most of the crowd was totally unfamiliar with the new songs. The My Third Husband songs, which sound very produced on the CD, went off beautifully live. The audience kicked in for the String of Pearls and Bitch Epic songs and the sheer audience thrill and swing in Man Overboard was nothing short of astonishing.
Despite the audience’s pissweak performance Deborah came back on to play String of Pearls and It’s Only the Beginning.
The whole Deborah thing, the voice, the attitude, the songs old & new, the personality and the snarl were all back in force.
Mark O’Meara