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REVIEW: ORIANTHI – CORNER HOTEL- MELBOURNE

Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: Jason Rosewarne.

With each passing year Australia’s guitar queen Orianthi’s eminence grows. She first came to the attention of guitar legends such as Carlos Santana and Steve Vai very early in her career and her professional trajectory continued on a rise to the point that Michael Jackson employed Orianthi as his guitarist for the This Is It Tour, which of course tragically never happened. Tours followed with Alice Cooper, Dave Stewart, Michael Bolton and Ori could often be seen jamming on stage with guitar heroes like Billy Gibbons and Slash at music trade shows and award presentations. Then there are the acclaimed solo recordings, the current one being Rock Candy with her 5th album to be released some time this year. She has just come off a debut performance in December at a Raiders NFL game with a new project called Band 3, which features percussionist Cindy Blackman Santana and bassist Rhonda Smith. They’re currently recording an album with Jimi Hendrix’s iconic engineer/producer Eddie Kramer in a venture which has been described as a female ‘Band of Gypsys’. Also in December she reunited with Gibbons and Slash as part of Billy’s birthday bash at Hollwood’s famous Troubadour.

Somehow Orianthi found time to carve out a small amount of time to tour Australia and catch up with friends and family in the new year, a fortunate place to be given the effects of the wildfire destruction in LA at the moment. Last night at the Corner Hotel, we witnessed the final gig of the Australian tour with an exciting performance, spotlighting her development as an all round artist and killer guitarist.

Beginning the night was Melbourne based blues rocker Dallas Frasca, who delivered an energetic show, concentrating on material from her latest album Force of Nature, an apt title for this dynamic performer. Although playing solo, Dallas managed to conjure a massive stage sound and amusingly referred to herself a couple of times as ‘we’, such was the band-like sound she was able to create on her own.

Orianthi hit the stage in trio mode featuring LA-based bass player Justin Andres and Sydney’s Warren Trout on drums. opening with Light It Up, a hard rocker from the Rock Candy album and wasted no time in ripping into a slick solo. Warren then led the trio into a spirited You Don’t Wanna Know. Overcoming some early stage noise issues, Orianthi then slid into a bluesy BB King cover,  Never Make Your Move Too Soon, presenting some scorching guitar lines, which powered out of her Orange amplification via her signature PRS guitar. She tells us that the atmospheric First Time Blues was recorded at The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger’s Love Street Sound Studio. The recorded version also features Joe Bonamassa on guitar. It’s nice to have such cool friends to call upon.

Australian Musician first met Orianthi at the Australian Music Association Convention on the Gold Coast in 2005 and have watched her career blossom since, experiencing her playing at numerous showcases in America and chatting to her in person and via zoom but this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to enjoy one of her own headline shows and were weren’t disappointed.

Changing up the vibe, Orianthi donned a Cole Clark guitar to begin an acoustic set, starting with Where Does Your Heart Go, a song off her Rock Candy album, a record in which she tells us she wrote 14 songs in 14 days. Delving back into the blues, she then performed Bo Diddley’s traditional piece Before You Accuse Me, proving that her acoustic chops are as sleek as her electric fretboard handiwork, inspiring a few beer-swilling audience members to singalong with her.

Slinging on the electric PRS again, Orianthi ripped into Sinners Hymn from her 2020 album ‘O’, with Justin Andres contributing some fabulous loping bass lines. Ori then showed us a glimpse into her future direction, performing her funky new single Some Kind of Feeling from her soon to be released new album. With her recent appearance at Billy Gibbons’ birthday bash at The Troubadour in mind, she then presented us with a powerful version of ZZ Top’s Sharp Dressed Man. Introducing the song Orianthi tells us that she supported ZZ Top in Adelaide when she was just sixteen and now she considers Gibbons a close friend. The moody, bluesy How Do You Sleep demonstrates her grasp of show dynamics and further displays Orianthi’s command of the fretboard, offering some searing guitar licks.

Dark Days Are Gone, an unreleased rocker from her forthcoming album gets an airing and quickly gains the crowd’s approval, with Trout and Andres working hard in the engine room. Ending the main set, Orianthi tells us the first song she ever put out into the world was a pop song and she proceeded to blast out the vibrant According to You. Walking off stage, the crowd clearly wasn’t done and encouraged her and the band back for an explosive version of Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile, where Ori’s true guitar prowess was brought to the fore, laying down some extraordinary licks from her extensive bag of tricks. Orianthi has cemented her place as one of the world’s most gifted guitarists and as she left the stage for the final time, promised to visit home more often in the future, especially now that she will soon have an album’s worth of new material to lay upon us. Thanks to Gerrard Allman Events and The Corner staff for their hospitality.

Setlist:
Light It Up
You Don’t Wanna Know
Never Make Your Move Too Soon
First Time Blues
What’s It Gonna Be

Acoustic:
Where Does Your Heart Go
Before You Accuse Me

Sinners Hymn
Some Kind of Feeling
Sharp Dressed Man
How Do You Sleep
Dark Days Are Gone
According to You

ENCORE:
Voodoo Chile

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