Drummer Nik Kaloper tells The Taipei Times: “Before The Jezabels, I was drumming for a thrash-metal punk band. Heather [Shannon] is a classically trained pianist. Sam [Lockwood] was playing country and bluegrass. And Hayley [Mary] idolises 1970s and 1980s pop sensations like Freddy Mercury and ABBA. So if you look at us on paper, there’s no reason we should’ve ended up in the same room together.”

Fans are glad that the unlikely happened, and that The Jezabels recently signed with Untitled Records (http://www.untitled.asia/) – Hong Kong-based Untitled Entertainment’s label division and Singapore’s newest indie label, making it likely they’ll extend their great popularity beyond Australia.

 

The Sydney-based band played an intimate set to a full house at Home Club on Jun 15. This is the third time they’re playing live in Singapore, first in last year’s Music Matters, then earlier this year at The People’s Party alongside bands such as Metronomy and Bombay Bicycle Club.

Despite the late start – the indie-rock-disco-pop band started playing more than an hour later than expected – the energetic performance still proved to be a treat for the fans.

 

“This is the first time I’m watching [The Jezabels] play live and it’s just mind-blowing… much better than their studio records!” gushed 19-year-old student Sonia Lee.

She added that the unique location, being smaller and cosier than say, Fort Canning Park, lent a more personal feel to the gig.

 

Kicking the gig off with hit single “Endless Summer”, vocalist Hayley’s unique and powerful multi-octave voice, keyboardist Heather’s lush classical sonatas, guitarist Sam with his guitar riffs and drummer Nik with his intense hard rock drumming bowled the audience over.

 

The quartet got the crowd singing and swaying along throughout their 12-song set, but what really roused the crowd was when favourites such as “Easy To Love”, “Mace Spray” and “Long Highway” were played.

Hayley commanded the stage, moving around as much as she could within the cramped area the band was allocated. Just as captivating as her voice was the way she danced around, gyrating and hip thrusting as she belted out  the lyrics to the songs, mesmerising the audience.

The concert ended with “Hurt Me”, an upbeat number with a hint of old school rock from their second EP “She’s So Hard”.

“Hurt me hurt me hurt me / oh cut me cut me serve me,” Hayley trilled deliciously.

 

The crowd lapped it up and there was a palpable sense of disappointment in the air when it was confirmed that there would not be a second encore song. Still, the fans left the club in visibly higher spirits than before.

Amongst them is 20-year-old student, Nicholas Lim. He shared, ”It would be great if they had played a few more songs, but this is still much better than expected! Two shows in a year…what more can a Jezabels fan ask for?”

The Jezabels are currently touring and will be performing with famed alternative rock band Garbage on their upcoming UK tour in July.