Returning to Melbourne for the first time since 2017, PJ Harvey wowed Melbourne’s Plenary Theatre on Tuesday night.
The show crescendos into being as the background music gradually morphed into the opening track. It’s a soulful beginning and PJ is truly captivating in her white outfit as she enthralls the audience with ballad Prayer at the Gate.
It’s clear she’s an artist who doesn’t just feel the music but genuinely lives and breathes it too. The set truly showcased her diversity as a performer as she moved between lighter, airy songs that created the sense of an almost childlike vulnerability, to the incredible strength, depth and power of numbers such as 50ft Queenie. At one moment she was crawling across the floor while singing and it was then that it truly resonated just how amazing her voice still is and what an incredible talent she possesses.
The show builds in momentum becoming rockier and higher energy as PJ progressed through the night, before ending quietly, with the final words of White Chalk (There’s blood on my hands) and a bow. It drifted from being purely a concert to feeling more like a theatrical production.
The ambient sounds that filled the spaces between songs helped further convey her intent and meaning and pulled the audience deeper into her journey, her story, but it’s done in such a carefully curated way that still allowed for the clear distinction between tracks.
This was further enhanced by her use of space throughout the evening. She performed across different parts of the stage, standing, sitting, dancing, crawling with the music throughout the evening, creating a uniquely special atmosphere for every track and making each truly a performance, not just a song. For what was a fairly simplistic visual set up, each song felt like its own individual vignette, its own scene with specific props and aesthetic design, all of which transformed the set into something that felt like a truly one of a kind experience that resonated long after the show was over.
Find PJ Harvey tour dates here.