Review - FREYjA with Rebecca Rennie
@ The Basement 15
January 2001
In the many times I have ventured down-town to The
Basement there has never been one good time to turn up – fashionably
late, reasonably early, right on time… it seems that so many circumstances will
effect how many people you have to jostle around to get a good vantage point.
The major circumstance in Sydney, however, is the weather. Today was the
hottest in many people’s memories so when we arrived to a moderately sized
crowd we quickly moved to stage right.
From which vantage we were able watch the last
few songs in one of two sets featuring the incomparable Rebecca Rennie. 
Rebecca,
tonight opting for a spangled paisley halter-top and a less formal attire than
her Basement debut some 22 months ago, and her band FREYjA had spent the best part of
the last six months touring The Continent with gigs not the least of which took
her down to Montreux
by the lake Geneva shoreline in July last year. Over that time many changes had
come into the show, the most obvious being the French Provincial influence
which saw Rebecca
accompanied only by a piano accordionist the likes of Maio on our arrival. Gino
Pengue soon replaced Maio and before long the whole
European line-up had re-united on stage for the first time since they returned
to Australia.
Soon what was a gentle swoon of ballads quickly
became a full-powered ‘fazz’ show with up to nine people on stage for the final
Latin expurgation that had everyone, on their seats’ edges in rapturous
applause, bitterly disappointed at the words ‘back in twenty minutes’. Even in
the short set I witnessed the stand-outs included The
Magician from the new set Siren’s Odyssey through
J’Bella Music and, also from the album, my favourite Ginsberg/beatnik-styled
Don’t Bother Going
Home complete with percussion FX from Jess
Ciampa, muted-horn solo from Miroslav (Mike) Bukovsky and
the Stuart
Hunter piano-solo.
Twenty minutes passed and soon the full band was
back. Becc
had opted for a more formal black number and sarong-styled skirt to retain the
casual-formal look for set two: a showcase of new songs, yet-to-be-recorded
songs, and tracks like One Happy Day
and Storm The Castle
from the new record. As it was a school night I unfortunately had to leave at
about the same point at which I had entered in the first set but those
remaining, as those watching online will agree, as an artist so in love with
her craft she excels in putting a professional and exceptional show together…
but still they chattered on….
Rebecca
is quick to assure that hers is not a jazz muse, not Latin, not folk, not pop,
not funk and not soul, but the searing combination of these contains the lady’s
heart and soul and will astound. No longer the inexperienced; not yet the
wizened trouper: a happy medium that will take this young artist to great
things.