![]() ![]() In 2013, a big break came: she was selected to support Bon Jovi on his tour of Australia after winning a Road to Discovery competition run by Telstra. The noise-making eventually evolved into covers and scratchy, home-spun demos, which McMahon would record in her bedroom and upload to Facebook and YouTube. “I’m so grateful they didn’t make fun of me for it.” Like, ‘Angie’s yelling at the piano again’,” she says, laughing. ![]() “ just let me go off and make noise after dinner. She started piano lessons at the age of four, and after dinner every night she would wander off to the piano to bash playfully on the keys. I felt like listening to that record and learning to play the songs, which I did a lot, I had a clear understanding of what I wanted to do with myself.” “That was a really big turning point in my life. “I was quite young when Missy Higgins’ The Sound of White came out,” she recalls. McMahon struggles to remember a time when she didn’t want to be a singer. McMahon grew up in the leafy suburb of Alphington in Melbourne (“I usually tell people Fairfield because nobody knows Alphington,” she quips), the daughter of a Springsteen-loving father and a mother with a beautiful singing voice. I hadn’t even plugged my guitar in yet, and I just felt it.” “I’ve just been really looking forward to being able to do that. “I felt really emotional before we even started playing,” she says. “This is the crying show,” she jokes to the audience.Ī few days later, on a cool and rainy Melbourne afternoon, McMahon is rugged up in a black jumper. Later in the show she pauses again, wiping away a few tears. It’s also the first time they have been performed live, making it a clearly emotional night for her. Written during a period of turbulent mental health and self-reckoning, the new songs, such as the Bruce Springsteen-influenced Letting Go and the dark, twisted Mother Nature, sound cavernous in the small space. On this night, her set features plenty of old favourites – including breakthrough hit Slow Mover and the propulsive Keeping Time – but the purpose of this short theatre tour is to introduce McMahon’s highly anticipated second album, Light, Dark, Light Again. Musically, McMahon stretches from whispered, intimate folk to vast and reaching indie rock, but all her songs draw from the same well: vulnerable, direct, soul-baring. It’s a long-awaited return for the 29-year-old, who since breaking out in 2017 has become one of Australia’s most respected songwriters and in-demand performers, having sold-out shows across the country and secured support slots for some of the biggest artists in the world. Since breaking out in 2017, Angie McMahon has become one of Australia’s most respected songwriters and in-demand performers. Despite being a recent single, the crowd knows every word. McMahon begins to sing – her rich, clear voice filling every corner of the space. “That made me want to cry.”Ī few scattered shouts of “I love you!” burst forth from the crowd, before McMahon offered a respectful Acknowledgment of Country and the first clear notes of Fireball Whiskey rang out. “Thank you so much for being here,” McMahon told the crowd, voice barely hovering above a murmur. But it didn’t come, as the Melbourne songwriter stood silently behind the microphone, taking a moment to breathe it all in. The packed-out venue had fallen silent after the yells of welcome, waiting for the initial blast of guitar or kick drum. Angie McMahon arrived on stage at Sydney’s Metro Theatre not with a bang, but with a whisper. ![]()
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