There’s usually a moment when you start watching an act, where it hits you just how much you’re enjoying them; for me, it starts as a bubbling up, a sense of joy about how the artist is nailing it. And from the second Wafia (Al-Rikabi) strolled onto the stage of Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory, she had the entire crowd feeling exactly that.
Opening up the night were Future Classic‘s latest buzz signing Erthlings, whose collective age — if you’re out of the loop, they’re all 16 years old and incredibly talented — was about the median age of the audience. That aside, the indie-rock group cruised through a number of new songs which were greeted with a lukewarm response, mostly because the audience was unfamiliar with their material.
This didn’t come as a huge surprise, considering Erthlings only officially became a band at the end of August, and it was one of their first ever gigs. Standout track “Cuts & Bruises” sounded fantastic live and showed a lot of promise from the four-piece. With more time and practice playing together in front of crowds, they’ll surely nail it, but in the meantime, they seem like they’ll do just fine.
Off the back of Erthlings was Yer Gurl, which is the solo pop project of Brisbane-based Fae Scott, whose sound feels like a more ethereal mix of Grimes and Alice Glass. While she was able to captivate the audience with her hushed lyrics and frenetic beats, over the space of 30 minutes, the set didn’t seem to progress, which was disappointing as it felt like there was a lot of promise that was yet to be tapped into.
Where her support acts teetered on the cusp of something great, Wafia was effortlessly victorious. A pop artist in every sense, she has the hits, is charismatic, and possesses a fantastic voice. Onstage, she has a an energy that makes her seem so relatable and approachable, breaking the typical artist-audience fourth wall. She’s also not afraid to speak about what she believes is important, case in point being her 2017 single “Bodies” about the Syrian refugee crisis and her family’s personal connection to it.
The show saw Wafia play hits all across her career like, “Love Somebody”, from her collaborative EP ‘(m)edian’ with Ta-ku, to the RnB-leaning heartbreak serenade “83 Days”. And at every moment it felt like all Wafia was moving forward; there were no pauses, no songs where the crowd stopped to stare at their phones. It’s clear there are bigger things to come for Wafia, and in the meantime, we’ll be holding out for a debut album release.
Photos by Keegan Thomas.