I first saw Sia live back in, I believe, 2008. I didn’t really know any of her music, other than “Breathe Me” and that she’d sung a few songs for Zero 7, but I didn’t even know which ones. But my friend was going, and I’m always down for a live show, so I tagged along. And. Wow. I was totally enamored/impressed/blown away by her show. I just remember thinking, “Damn, Gina! This girl’s got a set of pipes!” And ever since then, I’ve been waiting for the chance to see her again.

So this past Monday night, Diana, Julie and myself headed to St. Andrew’s Hall, one of my favorite venues in town, to see the Aussie in action. We got there just in time to catch a few songs from openers Girl in a Coma. I feel like I hadn’t seen a straight up rock show in a long time, especially with three lovely ladies on stage.

Before I get into the meat of this post, I have to inform you that posting all these images on my front page sometimes crashes it. So from here on out, I’m adding back in the “Read more” thing. But only for concert review posts. All other posts will remain as is. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

The first thing we noticed upon entering the main room was all of the colors on stage. Upon closer inspection, we realized that not only was the entire stage (floor included) and everything on it (we’re talking monitors, mic stands, microphones, everything) just about completely covered, but most of it was covered in knitted apparel. After recalling some tweets from Sia talking about knitting, it makes me wonder if she knitted the whole set herself. Either way, it was definitely a pretty cool sight and was totally perfect for this show.

After much waiting, Sia finally took the stage at around 9:30 wearing a really neat glowing unicorn horn connected to a jetpack looking device. If there was one thing I didn’t really remember from the first time I saw her, it was her incredible personality. It’s really refreshing to see artists on stage who are not only smiling and happy to be there, but also interacting with the crowd throughout the entire show. It may all be an act, but something makes me think that this is just the way she is, and that is a great thing. Further proof: Before the night was over, she also sported bubble blowing wings (which you can see in the pictures below). I guess another theme of her show was DIY and/or arts and crafts. We decided that she needs to host a children’s show. I think it could be a smash hit.

The show was a great mix of old classics and newer tunes and even a great cover of Madonna’s “Oh, Father”. Which, I must say, might be one of Madonna’s most underrated songs. Before the song, she said something to the effect of “Now I’m going to sing a song I didn’t write. This one is by Madonna, and I’m singing it for all my gays.” Her new tunes sounded fantastic live, and during “Clap Your Hands”, everyone was dancing, including the plastic cup sitting on the ledge next to me. I only wish I would have recorded it. Afterwards she told us that she thinks we’ve liked that song more than any other city on tour. When someone screamed out, “Zero 7!” she politely replied, “Sorry, we’ve retired the Zero 7 songs.” And when someone gave her a blue Care Bear (which happened to be the exact same blue Care Bear that I carried with me everywhere as a very small child), she announced that she was going to name him Detroit. And she really enjoyed the guy who was clapping by holding his beer in the air after each song. Before she closed the set with “Breathe Me”, she very matter of factly announced, “This is going to be my last song, then I’m going to leave the stage and come back for a fake encore, for all of you that have anxiety that I might leave and not come back. I don’t understand why if you’ve paid for a ticket to see me, you should have to beg for me to sing more songs!”

And besides the hilarious banter, there was her general on-stage cuteness to enjoy. But despite her incredible stage presence and perpetual on-stage happiness, the real star of the show is that incredible voice of hers. Usually at shows, I’m all about the high energy tunes and don’t really like it when things get slowed down a bit. But this is one of those shows where there is never a dull moment because the upbeat songs are fun to the max, and the slow songs are the times that amazing voice really gets to shine. It’s maybe the only show where I was hoping to hear more slow songs, just so that I had more opportunities to hear her powerful improvisations. Her voice was just as great as I remembered it and I was happy for that.

So, my advice to you, even if you have never heard a Sia song in your life which I’m sure you probably have even if you didn’t know it (see “Breathe Me”), if you like hearing catchy tunes and great vocals and generally want to have a fun time, you should go see Sia when she’s on tour. I don’t think you’ll regret it, but if you do, I will give you a dollar. Ok, maybe not, because you could just be lying to get a dollar, but I really don’t think it will be an issue.

Check out the video below for “Clap Your Hands” for further proof that she just likes to have fun.

And then listen to “Bring Night”. It has one of the catchiest choruses in recent memory, one that I have been whistling all the live long day, especially those delicious “oh oh oh oh” parts. And it’s really fun to hear live. And then look at all of the pretty pictures. And then buy her new album “We are Born” which is being released on June 7. You can listen to 6 of the tracks on her Myspace page now, and it is looking to be a really great album so far. And I just learned there’s a studio version of that Madonna cover on the album too.

Make sure to check out the flickr photoset for some more shots not seen here.

Sia – Bring Night

I call this shot “accidental floor pic revealing wood floor wear and tear”

And I call this shot “happy and satisfied Sia fans with setlist, ruined by bad photographers refusal to use the flash”