Review - Freyja with Rebecca Rennie + Floyd Vincent with Joe Accaria
@ The Basement 15 March 1999

The Basement crowd was quite sizeable for a Monday, but not as receptive to Floyd Vincent with Joe Accaria as they could have been. Wearing tuxedo-pants and one of the loudest shirts I have seen for years (offset by and/or in competition with Joe's), Floyd's set was a short and light acoustic collection which spanned euro-acoustica and 'country and western', the latter of which was as far from that as possible! Stand-outs included the Triple J favourite I Gave Myself to You, and one dedicated to the chardonnay-and-calamari set Steak and Chips. Floyd tried to please as many of the audience as he could and more credit is due to him, but still they were adamant that there was only one reason for them to be there. That was well and truly acknowledged when this nouveau-jazz diva emerged.

Resplendent in an embossed-white evening gown, Rebecca Rennie was 'as nervous as' right the way up to the opening of tonight's show. All nerves were dispelled, though, when the audience fairly erupted to a level normally reserved for well-known well-established acts as she took the stage! While the audience were just as many family and friends as supporters, they had all shelled out their hard-earned to see FREYjA's Basement debut and were as enraptured as a polite jazz-crowd is allowed to be at the sight and sound of this jazz/latin set penned by players and colleagues both onstage and in the cheering audience.

Stand out tunes of the first set included the opener The Castle, Titania's Charm, Without a Trace and the non-acoustic version of the EP closer Cocoon. I was only able to stay for that set, which is more the pity because that simply was not enough to quench my wont of more of this emergingly popular artist! Lovers of jazz from traditional Halliday to the new West Coast style will find FREYjA with Rebecca Rennie just what they have been lacking locally for far too long!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson