Andy Bull – Oxford Arts Factory, Sydney 13/06/15

On the final show of his Talk Too Much Tour, it only seems fitting that Andy Bull finishes up in Sydney, his hometown. Bull has toured with his album, Sea Of Approval, since its release back in 2014 but that didn’t deter a sold out crowd.

The night began with Sydney band Vigilantes, bringing dreamy pop, eloquent vocals and a cover of Jolene to warm up the still filling crowd. Cub Sport followed with their brand of indie pop anthems and also providing a cover of Drunk In Love mixed with Crazy In Love.

Then, it was time for Andy. A completely packed house lined up in front of the stage and across the balcony, craving to hear the synth pop anthems they had been listening to for over a year. Beginning with the opening track on his album, Just One Expression, Just One Line, the audience immediately realized they were in for a much different show to what they expected.

Previous performances had seen Bull perform an almost identical take to the album, however last night’s performance was rockier, dripped with heavy drums, wailing guitar and made his songs head-banger classics. Obviously the last year of touring has allowed Andy to get more and more comfortable and experiment with his tracks.

After pulling out Baby I Am Nobody Now, the crowd erupted and Andy couldn’t help but smile and say, “You’re making this too easy for us.”. Throughout the whole performance, Andy showed off his double decker keyboard skills, tweaking knobs at every moment he wasn’t exhibiting his incredibly high vocal range.

As well as playing the entirety of Sea Of Approval, older songs, Phantom Pains, a very chilled out version of Dog and his cover of Everybody Want To Rule The World, all made appearances. Talk Too Much wrapped up the set and really reinforced that the crowd were not ready to go home yet.

Andy strolled back out and gave a heartfelt speech about the last year, gave his thank you’s to his band and wife (which broke most of the crowd’s hearts), and played Something I Guess, followed by a mini jam session with his band. Then finally, the faithful sound of an automatic soap dispenser informed the crowd that Keep On Running was going to round off the show causing audience mayhem, sing-alongs and attempted harmonies.

Over a year of touring and performing has made Andy stronger artist and one that audiences will eagerly wait to return. You can stop running now, Andy.

Watch: Andy Bull – Keep On Running

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