Naked Dream - Review

Reviewed by Lydia Cheng
On Friday night, Rachel Collis took over the stage at Riverside Theatres. Rafferty's Stage may not call to mind an imposing stage like New York's Carnegie Hall, but for a performer like Collis, the venue is perfect for her piano and her band. With Michael Galeazzi on electric and double bass and Michael Quigley on drums, Collis' music is built up even more and the audience can peek into Collis' mind.

Before the show began, conversations about her filled the audience. Why yes, she was at the Fringe Festival earlier. Didn't you realize that she was working on several other songs? A few of her songs come from real life inspiration; however, she does disclaim that certain pieces are not inspired by her cat, which according to Pet Hell should be made into mince, or her local restaurant that blew up as a result of arson in So Your Dreams Went Boom.

With that, the lights dimmed, and Collis stepped out on stage, barefoot, before striding over to the piano. Her first two songs, Tomorrow and If I Could, are lovingly crooned out to the audience, allowing them to settle back into their seats.

The fourth song began to reveal her theatrical side. The French Door Thief is silly but charming. Dim lighting and a snazzy chorus showcase Collis' ability to step into a persona: I am reminded of someone from the 1920s, or a cabaret singer who dabbles in the burlesque arts. She shakes and shimmies, with comedic effect, but it is truly her voice that holds your attention.

However, there are other skills that Collis has. Her ability to strum along on the ukulele is fantastic, even when she admits that she only knows two songs. Then the moment she showcases her kazoo skills, the audience can't help but laugh. After all, a kazoo appearing in the middle of a sultry act tends to bring out a few giggles.

The bantering between Collis and her band mates kept the mood light throughout the evening, something much appreciated with her songs Winter in Munich and Make Room. Winter in Munich is an eerie piece: the piano and Collis' gentle voice belay sorrowful lyrics about journeys and leaving. Given that Collis' husband contributed to the lyrics, the thought of a couple working together on a melancholic song makes the melody even more haunting.

Make Room is a song that Collis wrote awhile back. She mentions that it makes her think of the current situation with refugees coming to Australia. With lyrics like “love is spacious,” it's not hard to see why. Several people in the audience seemed to have chills from the music, myself included.

Collis ended the night with two fantastic encores: The Germans and Pablo. One is a satirical ode to “If the Germans had won the war”; the other is a ballad for a wonderfully skilled Brazilian waxer. s

Rachel Collis and her band presented a highly diverse and wonderful show for an entire 90 minutes. Between her attitude as a jazz lounge crooner, a maniac pet owner, and a slightly unhinged human being, Collis' performance persona is both likeable and admirable.

Rachel Collis - Review

Rachel Collis at the Glebe Church Café
Reviewed by Regi Su

Rachel Collis, a classically trained vocalist and pianist, branches out to pop-music, writing and composing original pieces that truly illustrate her talent for storytelling tales that are both theatrically entertaining and profoundly moving. Her gig at the Glebe Church Café proved to be a great, intimate space for Rachel to present her most recent album- Ever After.

Rachel is such a great composer and a professional in musicianship. Her shaped, flawless talent in piano is honestly breathtaking and her vocal talents are exquisite. She has such vocal range and power. The show was wholly hosted by her and so not only did her personality present itself through her lyrically heavy music, but also in the side dialogue of commentary made to a small intimate audience. In such an informal setting, Rachel seemed to be very at home, confident and in control, all feelings which definitely aided her performance by adding an extra ounce of passion.

Although graced with such a vocal range and great power, I feel that Rachel’s strengths are her enthusiasm and flair. She seems to hunger for the big time and she gave all of her efforts and attention to our small crowd. The only disappointment for me was that the crowd wasn’t larger. Her quick and witty lyrics are heavy with narrative and she has a knack for intelligent life commentary through her music, yet at the same time, a lot of her tunes seem introspective. She’s rather Regina Spektor-esque in wordplay and effortless vocals. She’s definitely an interesting break from your usual music.

Rachel is a cabaret act and needs to be seen as well as heard. I feel that she yearns for Broadway and this was evident in her theatricalities, in gesture, storytelling and commentary. As I was sitting in the audience I closed my eyes and saw her clothed in black, rising on a broomstick with a green facial like something from the stage show Wicked. She has talent, it’s true.

Rachel’s lyrics are disquietingly deep if you listen to the words and manage to deconstruct a metaphor out of her frivolity. If you don’t, she’s still fantastic entertainment. Her quiet vocals and piano accompaniment, in songs like “Echo”, are simple and expressive, they’re very powerful. As well as this, her whole band compositions, with double bass and electric guitars, drums and more, are very clever. Her music is the sort of music you could hum to, but song along with. You could have her on while making toast or having a lie-down because her music requires an element of your attention, it’s definitely not background music.

Rachel Collis is a great character, personality and singer/songwriter. Her next show is on the 21st at the Glebe Church Café as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival. For more information, visit: http://www.rachelcollis.com/

Kelly Young - Oh! My Shattered Illusions

Kelly has been away from the stage for quite sometime, 15 years in fact, but has now resumed her cabaret career with Oh! My Shattered Illusions. She recently played at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta.

Kelly has been on a bit of a life journey, like us all. But shares some of the stories of motherhood, marriage and divorce with us. Many of the songs tell the funny side of life, even though they can be serious at the time. Most were full of humour and had the audience screaming with laughter.  Kelly sang with great passion, though she didn't have the strongest of voices for some of the songs, it was more about the story so this didn't matter. She was accompanied by Rachel Collis on piano. Rachel you may have seen earlier this year, is another talented musician.
I think the Riverside Theatre was probably not the best venue for this type of performance. Kelly would be better performing in a cabaret style set up. It was a good show though and certainly entertaining and if you see she is performing elsewhere in Sydney, I would go.

Rachel Collis and Band - Review

Friday night in Parramatta.  It has been a while since I have travelled to Parramatta and every time I go I think, I should go there more often.  We strolled along looking for a place to eat that wasn't going to cost us too much and came upon Mars Hill Cafe. It was a great little place, good cheap food, live entertainment and a small exhibitions of paintings on the walls. I could have spent the night there really, but I knew Rachel was waiting in the wings for her audience to arrive.
Rachel Collis is a singer songwriter and has just released her debut album Ever After. She is classically trained on Piano and vocals, both of which were outstanding.   She has a strong, gutsy voice and a wide vocal range. She performed with a band consisting of Keyboard/ Percussion, Drums, Bass (double bass and guitar) and Trumpet. All the musicians were excellent.
Rachel's repertoire varied from amusing to melancholy. All the songs were well written and there was plenty of variety to adequately show Rachel's vocal and keyboard talents, along with the bands!  The evening started well with a few light hearted uplifting songs to warm up the audience.  One of the first songs is called Column B which is about people who all love something but what they love isn't always appreciated by the rest of society.  I did think, because of the themes in some of the songs, like Pour Me a Glass of Wine and This Old House that Rachel had been unlucky in love and marriage. However, at the end of the evening after singing Song for Steve, which she wrote for her husband, he appears and plays guitar in one of the songs.
Everybody enjoy the evening, however, you could noticeably feel the mood drop towards the end as Rachel sang several sad songs in a row and instead of bringing the band back to pick up the pace and the audience's mood, she ended with a solo.  I would go and see her again because on the whole I did enjoy her music and I would like to see what she does next.
You can find her album on the itune store under Rachel Collis.