Never in my young life could I imagine getting to a point where I would start a story with “20 years ago…” and actually have a living adult memory from that time, rather than it just being a blurred childhood recollection. So, when some of your favourite bands and artists start embarking on their ‘20th Anniversary Tours’ for albums you could swear to god were only released a year ago, the reality check hits you like a tonne of bricks. The latest artist to embark on such a tour is our very own and incredibly talented, Missy Higgins. Her debut album The Sound of White turns the big 2-0 this year, and she is currently touring the country far and wide to commemorate the hit album and its success.
Friday night my friend and I headed toward the ocean and landed in St Kilda at one of its most iconic landmarks, the historic and beautiful Palais theatre. This night she was lit up tastefully in a purple and red glow and commanded the attention of every passerby with her dominant presence on the St Kilda foreshore. As my friend and I approached, the crowd were gathering outside the doors and the icy sea breeze cut straight through us as we stood out the front finishing our traveller cans like a pair of naughty 16 year olds. With no support act and an early start time, there was just enough time to rehydrate at the bar and head in to settle into our seats ready for the night to begin.
We didn’t need to wait long until the lights went down, and Missy Higgins entered the stage to sit at her grand piano, to cheers and a huge round of applause from a very excited 2000-strong crowd. To start the set, she kicked off with one of her early songs Falling, and went on to explain that she’d put out a message on her socials asking fans to request songs for this set. The first half of the show was to be a mixed bag of old and new songs, before we revisited The Sound of White album. Halfway through singing The Battle, Missy had a temporary mind blank and hilariously said “Fuck, what are the words? This is what happens when I’m asked to play songs that are 20 years old”. We were then treated to a new song, Story for the Ages, which is on her new album due to be released later this year. Missy explained she wrote the song about coming to terms with her separation from her husband, and having to rewrite her story because it didn’t go the way she had originally planned. Despite her cheery demeanor and her reassurance that she is moving forward with her life, the raw emotion and grief is still clearly evident when Missy discusses this particular phase of her life. Being privy to that open emotion feels like a privilege and makes someone’s story and their music dive deeper into your soul.
The Broken Ones is another new release, and the relatable and emotionally charged lyrics really hit me for six. Throughout this entire set, Missy was alone on stage(bar a couple of numbers that included her backing vocalists), and she seamlessly floated between her piano and guitar, so the acoustic nature of each song gave it an additional layer of depth and feel. The Cactus That Found the Beat was a fun, upbeat jazz-inspired song that Missy wrote for her Year 12 end of year performance and had the crowd grooving and clapping along to the funky beat and her nifty scatting. We then got a huge surprise when Aussie singer Angie McMahon joined Missy on stage, and together they sang Where I Stood. The combination of Missy’s heavenly smooth tones and Angie’s ethereal vocals made this song other worldly, and the collective goosebumps in the theatre were palpable. This was a truly incredible moment, and one that I feel lucky to have witnessed first-hand. Missy made a joke about selling tissues at the merch stand, given the sad content of a lot of her songs, and I found this comment quite appropriate as she sang another new release in which there’s a line she sings about crying in the kitchen once the kids have gone to bed. It’s easy to forget that artists in the public eye are just as human as anyone else, and this particular lyric was really quite poignant and a stark reminder of this.
It was time for an interval so the crowd could grab a drink and emotionally reset, in anticipation of ‘The Second Act’. All For Believing opened the second set with a haunting arrangement with just keys and a cello, before the 6-piece band entered the stage appropriately dressed in white, to perform Katie. Missy flaunted her custom-made short suit for the tour with an accompanying white tasselled jacket, with different meaningful symbols embroidered on it to represent different lyrics from her debut album. The River prompted Missy to recall how she used to freak out her teachers at school with her fucked up stories, but it’s fair to say it seems to have worked out pretty well for her career-wise.
Nightminds brought a solid lump to my throat and had the nostalgia flooding right back into my bones, before Ten Days had me reminiscing about all the boys I wasted hours crying over in my younger years. Missy Higgins and her tunes of heartache were on high rotation on my broken heart playlist and despite the time that has apparently passed, she has the power to evoke all those feelings again making them bubble to the surface. This is How It Goes had Missy showcasing her incredible vocal ability where in one instance in the bridge her voice was doing things I didn’t think humanly possible, and the crowd agreed with their enthusiastic response. We kept moving through the album (not in track order) before landing on The Special Two. You could feel the physical energy of everyone in the room during this iconic track, and the audience couldn’t help but sing along (at a respectful level). Missy thanked her fans for riding this journey with her and for sticking around for the last 20 years, before leading into her first huge hit Scar that had the room singing along to every word and up dancing in the aisles. The Sound of White appropriately finished off the show, and the room completely erupted at its conclusion with raucous cheers and a well-deserved standing ovation.
Missy Higgins is one of our greatest talents in this country, and her songwriting and musical ability is second to none. Her incredible voice is a soothing salve for the soul, that has the extraordinary ability to heal even the most broken of hearts. This was a truly magical night of emotion inducing nostalgia, and I’m so thrilled that I got to experience it in the flesh for myself. Those that have been to this show will know exactly what I’m talking about, and will understand that sometimes there just aren’t enough words that will do this night and the whole entire tour justice.