Arlo Parks performing at this year’s Darwin Festival.Credit:Helen Orr
The problem is when a musical mood is rigidly sustained to the point of inertia,which is the case for much of this show:the sea of heads may calmly bob to one breezy song after the other,but that means no big waves are made,no boats are rocked.
The music itself,played competently enough by a backing band of four musicians,veers a little too closely to ’80s easy listening,so smooth and inoffensive that even a pretty tame bass solo duringCola elicits a disproportionate number of cheers from the crowd for sounding like “rocking out” in comparison to everything else.
Parks herself seems absolutely lovely,relaxed and smiling and kind,with a soothing,beautiful voice that calms nerves rather than frays them. But coupled with music that’s too even-keeled for its own good,the results more often than not tend to veer toward prosaic rather than thrilling.
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It’s telling that the only moment of the night that comes close to inducing a goosebump or two comes duringAngel’s Song when the band mostly take a back seat,Parks singing with just a guitar for accompaniment and proving her voice is far more powerful and affecting minus the funk-lite backing.
The vast majority of the hyped crowd,however,appears to be loving every moment regardless,and during punchier,poppier songs likeCaroline,Hurt andToo Good,it’s a little easier to buy into the fervour and see how Parks bagged herself the Mercury Prize for last year’s debut album,Collapsed In Sunbeams.
Even with only an incrementally bigger amount of vigour and energy than what has come before,final songSoftly does a good job of getting the crowd jumping,but does an even better one of summing up tonight with its title:a gig as gentle as a summer breeze that you can appreciate in the moment,but largely forget about once it’s over.