Darren Hanlon & Georgia Fair - The Factory (August 13th)

On a distinctly unspooky Friday the 13th, Sydney folk duo Georgia Fair supported Darren Hanlon, Australia's favourite wordsmith at Enmore's Factory Theatre. With Georgia Fair starting their promising career and Hanlon at the peak of his, it proved to be a night of fine Australian songwriting as Max Easton writes.

The Factory Theatre has got to be one of Sydney's most unique venues. Catering to comedy and music, it's a place with an atmosphere that sits somewhere down the middle of those two sensibilities. With an outdoor bar and BBQ sitting at the foot of the steps to the stage and an alley way of sorts that leads to said area, it tends to feel more like you're crashing someone's 21st than strolling into a gig. It's an interesting place and it's not until you head inside and see the purpose built theatre stage that you realise how good this venue actually is. To make a ludicrous segway, it's fitting then, that a great venue would lay host to two great bands.

Sydney's Georgia Fair are an act that by now, you've probably heard in some shape or form. Their hallmark track Picture Frames was featured on a flavoured milk ad and had a great run on commercial radio, with the ensuing EP unfortunately suffering from overproduction and a cringeworthy Fiona Apple styled Autotune moment or two. Not one to let that get in the way of things though, the two put out a sample track off their upcoming LP recently (listen here) marking a drastic improvement, one which only continued its rise with their set at the Factory. The two guitar bearing lads dabble in breezy folk that almost comes across as an all-male Angus & Julia Stone. With sweeping harmonies placed in front of minimalist guitar sounds, the duo continue the work laid by Australian folk acts like early Beautiful Girls and Jez Mead, with a modernised indie tinge in the form of a subtly distorted Stratocaster. At the Factory, tracks like the aforementioned Picture Frames elicited a massive response, along with a great cover of the Cure's Love Song, an unexpected addition that came with great consequence. Throwing in a few new tracks like Times Fly also impressed, while the set closer, Simple Man was one that not only finished the set fittingly, but had them leaving the stage with an excited applause from those gathered. Georgia Fair left the stage no doubt with a few new fans onboard and regained credibility from the cynics who were turned off by the EP.

With Georgia Fair's departure preceding the subsequent rush to find a decent place in the crowded theatre for the headline act, an eagerness spread. Darren Hanlon, a man mixing equal parts Billy Bragg and Paul Kelly with his own stylistic twinge, is a man with an almost ravenous fan following. There are few acts that have their fan base actively promoting a gig with no prompting whatsoever, and it only takes a few songs into a live show to understand why. Hanlon has a knack with his songs to resonate with almost every single person who is watching wide-eyed before the stage. Whether that's a song with a wide-reaching theme like Scenes From a Separation or a very specific one like the tale of songwriting in Falling Aeroplanes, he fills them with an honesty that anyone can relate to. Very few of us have written a song, but everyone has fretted about doing something nice for someone. Even his cover of Phil Oakley's 1980's synth-pop love song Electric Dreams seems to carry an added gravitas when delivered through Hanlon's voice box. The resulting effect of this is a captivated audience, chuckling at the clever lines in all of his songs, responding with jovial heckling that is responded to with witty fervour and you've got a show that highlights Hanlon's ability to involve an audience.

You get the feeling whilst watching Darren Hanlon and his band of misfits that you're watching music with an infinite shelf life. Like Billy Bragg, he deals with themes that will always be prevalent and does it in a way that encompasses all forms of humour. As far as big calls go, he's got to be our generation's finest Australian songwriter. I feel as though I can give my kids of the future a Darren Hanlon album in their late teens and they'll listen to it with the same fervour that I listened to the Billy Bragg album my Dad gave me. That's a sensation that doesn't come across very often - what with all the low-fi reverb-soaked indie music the kids are playing these days - and a sensation that I think is totally valid.

Darren Hanlon's Australian tour continues throughout August, the dates of which you can find here. Be sure to catch him on his way around our nation, and failing that, then track down Georgia Fair. The both of them are sure to please.