A Stella Donnelly gig is always a guaranteed fun time. I first had the privilege of seeing Stella and her band at Bristol’s Thekla back in 2019, just before my 16th birthday, having been transfixed by her incredible debut album Beware of The Dogs and its blend of sunshine-tinged indie rock and piercingly poignant, quippy, observational lyrics. 2022 saw the release of Donnelly’s sophomore album Flood, as well as my first year at The University of Leeds. With that stage of my life having come to a close, the gig at Brudenell Social Club felt like a reminder of life before university, and the hope of it being over soon.
Flash forward four years, Donnelly’s hotly-anticipated return was marked by her third album Love and Fortune, bringing her a headline set in the iconic Pink Room at Manchester’s YES and coinciding with the penultimate week of the bulk of my final semester at a university I had somehow managed to stay put in. We had come full circle, and both Donnelly and her guitarist, Jack Gaby, looked exactly the same; the years had more visibly gotten to me, however.
Jack Gaby commenced the night’s proceedings with a solo set of original, acoustic songs. Years of practice in Donnelly’s band must have rubbed off, with Gaby confidently commanding both stage and crowd, the latter growing in number with every song. The guitar rhythms in the first and final tracks particularly piqued my interest, with his pedal work adding a depth to an already enjoyable experience that separated him from a typical acoustic singer-songwriter opener set. With an anecdote of a long distance relationship that began in Brighton and call-back jokes that kept the audience engaged, his song ‘Dressed Up for Nando’s’ was one of the best new songs I have heard all year.
Despite being less familiar with the next band, Pys Melyn, I was equally bowed over. Whilst the set was in Cymraeg, I enjoyed every song as much as if I may have even if I could understand the lyrics, with the song introductions sufficient enough as to let the audience know what was going on, and subsequently lean back and dance to their 70’s influenced, quirky, lo-fi rock.
As a huge fan of Welsh indie music, with fellow North Walians Super Furry Animals even being my chosen laptop screensaver, the obvious influence of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci was massively appreciated. I even ended up purchasing both a Pys Melyn CD and T-shirt at the merch stall, thus the band can be seen as a testament to why everyone should always get to gigs early enough to catch the opener.
The two opening sets of the night and the 19:30 start time curated lingering excitement in the build up to Donnelly’s set until 21:40, when she finally came on. The wait was more than worth it, however, with a perfect balance of crowd-pleasing older material and an exemplary showcase of the slightly more ruminative and narrative focus of songs from Love and Fortune, which detailed the pain of friendships ending, the anxiety of unknown futures, and the subtle depression of life’s ennui — even in sunny Melbourne.
Songs like ‘Being Nice’ and ‘Standing Ovation’ had the crowd bopping along as much as Donnelly, alongside ‘How Was Your Day?’ and and ‘Tricks’, and the crowd were as attentive for new ballads ‘Bath’ and ‘Laying Low’ as they were for the punch of ‘Beware of The Dogs’ and ‘Mosquito’. Debut favourite ‘U Owe Me’ had its mention of Aussie beer VB swapped out for a local beer recommendation of Boddington’s from the crowd, and Donnelly made genuinely funny quips throughout her set, taking any instrument malfunctions in her stride, and looked purposeful as set-ups for her humour.
I was initially concerned that opening her set with as strong of a song as lead single ‘Old Man’ from her debut album, a personal favourite of my own, could have meant an early peak, however by the time set closer ‘Tricks’ came round I had forgotten any passing of time, and only wanted the show to carry on.
Despite Donnelly and her band, which includes Marcel Tussie, husband and drummer of fellow Aussie legends Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (RBCF), having returned to Australia for now, this gig was a must see, and you would be mad not to catch Stella Donnelly whenever she returns to our shores. With a new RBCF album coming later this year, let’s hope Stella is brought along on their next UK tour, so we won’t have to wait another four years!
