Geraldine Quinn’s ‘SEXDEATHBOWIE’ at the Gilded Balloon is on a gloriously intimate scale. If you don’t yet know Geraldine Quinn, then you will be stunned by her song-writing and musical performance. All aspects of both are exquisitely excellent. It is such pleasure to be presented with phrase after phrase of brilliantly crafted, intelligently comic lyrics. Her supporting instrumentals are inventively composed, varied, and ripe with interesting progressions. In performance, her guitar is flawlessly executed. Her expressive vocals flit through sweet, gutsy, neurotic, plaintive and playful moods. She delivers nothing short of treasure to be fingered in memory.
Geraldine’s physical presence on stage is engaging like few others, crackling with energy. She leads in and out of musical elements with extended deft discourse that adds much to the performance.
Because it is a tiny venue, at times, the animated intensity of her spoken elements can reach a manic pitch, and they are more enjoyable in the sections that they feel more relaxed.
Geraldine has merchandise available if you discover you need to hear more of her work, and, professionally, she lets her performance rather than a repeated sales pitch sell it. She makes herself explicitly available for a chat afterwards, which matches nicely with the scale of the venue and demonstrates respect for her appreciative audience. Be warned that, the rare intensity of her performance is equalled by the intensity of the heat within the Wee Room performance space – dress with an under layer suited to an equatorial summer. You know your performer values their audience when they bring sweets and water to help them cope with the heat!
5/5
Luke Wilkie
