“This could be a career-ending move for me.”
Such scathing words were spoken by the audacious Australian singer-songwriter Stella Donnelly, in the midst of a rant against Belgian beer during her sold-out show at London’s Scala earlier this week. With barely an EP and LP under her belt, the young songwriter found herself a long way from home - touring the world with her pertinent blend of lo-fi indie-pop and folk-rock music seething through with Donnelly's societal questioning. Donnelly proved to be the ultimate comedian, too, performing a part-stand-up/part-music set eagerly perching on her tiptoes throughout her coruscating set.
Stepping into London’s Scala alone may seem daunting to some, however the slick exuberance of Donnelly’s character dossed this aside, instantly solo-performing ‘Grey’ taken from her “jokey” debut EP of last year, Thrush Metal. As the start of the set continued, the popularity of Donnelly’s songwriting and lyricism imminently became apparent. Whilst the instrumentals of her guitar plucking weren’t the most elaborate, her pertinent lyricism undoubtedly was - fostered within such tracks as ‘Beware of the Dogs’, ‘Mosquito’, and ‘Boys Will Be Boys’.
From the politically-charged rallying cry against the Australian government, to the demeaning romantic descriptions of a “malaria mosquito buzzing in the shadow”, Donnelly truly channelled her enticing nak for audience engagement. Regardless of the simplified guitar instrumentals of her solo performance, one of the pinnacles of her evening’s set came in the latter track - retelling her friend’s story as a sexual abuse victim. Contextualising this with her personal experiences, her impassioned pre-track speech rightfully addressed our culture of victim blaming insinuating that “boys will be boys” - answering back with her concluding line, “time to pay the fucking rent.”
This point marked the entrance of Donnelly’s 5-piece entourage, delving into various Mac DeMarco-flavoured tracks ultimately relieving the pent-up tension from the set’s former half. Yet again, the hilarity of Donnelly’s character seeped through into such track as ‘Season’s Greetings’ and ‘Die’, with the former bizarrely overlapping inner thoughts of “fuck up your life, lose all your friends”, and the latter incorporating an awkwardly coordinated workout with her fellow band members. Not only as a cringey throwback to 80’s synchronised workouts, this mid-section also offered a much-welcomed respite amongst the heavy-handed subject matter strewn throughout Donnelly’s discography - skirting on the edges of earnestness and farcical.
Entering into the set’s final offerings, Donnelly affirmed her extensive spectrum of emotions over the course of her debut EP and LP from the past couple of years. The oscillation between these voracious emotions made for jarring listening in parts, namely between the recent tongue n’ cheek single ‘Tricks’ and the heart-wrenching track ‘Mechanical Bull’ from her EP. In spite of the heavy rotation of such emotions, Donnelly ultimately garnered such likeability and appeal as her set evolved into a myriad of hyper-personalised stories from a startlingly mature songwriter.
As if the 27-year-old Australian musician wasn’t popular enough, the emphatic encore track of covering Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ ubiquitously won the hearts of this London audience. Exuberant, humorous, and lovable, Donnelly conducted her onstage character to magnificent effect, welding in lo-fi, indie-pop tropes emblematic of the widened popularity of her other contemporaries, namely Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, and boygenius. Where the overall style of this genre may be restricted in the extent of its live conviction, the young and promising singer-songwriter proved her uniqueness against our current barrage of bland indie musicians encircling such various music circles. For the part-comedian/part-musician from Australia, this wasn’t an issue - and long may her and her quirky songwriting continue.
7.5/10
Stella Donnelly's latest debut LP, Beware of the Dogs is out now and can be found here.
All photos are courtesy of Dani Bolton, whose work can be found here.
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