Avant-garde triumph or worst concert ever? Sia’s first Australian show polarises and confuses fans
SIA just put on the most abstract stadium pop concert Australia has ever seen. Fans are divided and some think she wasn’t even on stage. But here’s the real story.
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SIA’S avant-garde stadium concert has divided her Melbourne fans.
The Adelaide singer stood at the back of the stage for the show with her trademark wig covering her face and only spoke at the very end of the concert.
It has led to a handful of fans on Twitter questioning if she was even on stage, and others complaining about paying for prerecorded music and videos.
However her true fans are hailing her return to the stage and said the show was in keeping with anti-fame approach to her visuals.
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“Sia was definitely on stage in Melbourne,” promoter Michael Chugg said this morning.
“She’s always covered her face to perform, at Coachella and all the American concerts, that’s how it is. That’s part of her whole thing. I saw 26,000 kids going apeshit, what can I say?”
Chugg said Sia hasn’t talked between songs in any of the shows on her Nostaglic for the Present tour and always performed without a live band and with bespoke video content.
The prerecorded videos (which are replicated on stage by her dancers) feature actors including Australia’s Ben Mendelsohn as well as Gaby Hoffman and comedians Tig Notaro and Kristen Wiig.
However Chugg confirmed American teen Maddie Ziegler, who stars in Sia’s videos, was definitely on stage in Australia, as well as featuring in the videos.
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@Sia are you even here tonight? The videos are pre-recorded obviously @therealpauldano isn’t here and this could all be audio recording ?! Speak or move from your pedestal ?? #siamelbourne
— Rebecca (@Rebeccahrogers) November 30, 2017
“She’s never talked on stage, that’s how she is. She has the dancers on stage with her, that’s how it’s always been. I’ve also read a lot of euphoria about the show on Twitter and people saying thank you.”
Fans could pay $50 for the trademark Sia blonde/black wig at the merchandise stalls.
Sia’s mother was snapped in the audience by a fan.
She will play to around 30,000 fans in Sydney tomorrow at Allianz Stadium on a mini-festival featuring all female acts — Australia’s Amy Shark, British musician Charli XCX and Denmark’s MO.
Sia joins Adele, Taylor Swift and Madonna as the only female solo acts to play stadium shows in Australia in the last 30 years.
The world tour ends in New Zealand on Tuesday. Sia has just released a Christmas album.
@Sia can you confirm you were actually in Melbourne tonight? pic.twitter.com/CbqbNwRtNs
— E (@Otts3000) November 30, 2017
Sat thru 3hrs of support acts for 75min show. Artist stood in same spot all show, no audience interaction, relied entirely on backing-track (no live band) & pre-record video. Boring & pretentious
— Dave Lee (@davlee1991) November 30, 2017
Was @Sia even there or have we been had?@ChuggEnt Want my $140 back#siamelbourne
@Sia in Melbourne last night was the biggest disappointment of my life. We paid $189 for our tickets to watch a little girl dance
— dani smell ⚓ (@dani_alyce) November 30, 2017
@maddieziegler loved watching you last night in Melbourne at the Sia Concert!
— lis sim (@kiwigirl_lisa) November 30, 2017
SIA REVIEW
By Cameron Adams
THE last time we saw Sia perform live in Australia we could actually see her.
Since that 2011 tour a lot has changed for Adelaide’s coolest export.
She has just staged the most polarising stadium pop show Australia has ever seen.
If you want audience interaction or the usual pop concert cliches, this is not the show for you.
However the Nostalgic for the Present concert follows the exact same aesthetic all her videos and TV performances have since Chandelier relaunched her solo career.
It’s deliberately abstract, a concept piece with dancers and choreography the focus, not Sia. They’re doing performing, she’s singing (yes, live) behind them, disguised and static. It’s different, but Sia has always been different.
Australians will remember 2011 era Sia — playing with a live band, no wig and no worries.
However that touring and success saw the musician quit performing — and considering ending it all.
After reinventing herself as a pop-star whisperer and writing songs for Rihanna, Kylie, Katy and Britney, Sia reactivated her solo career.
The wigs and standing at the back behind dancers is her plan for self-preservation from fame this time around.
It is definitely odd in a huge stadium to see a star so detached from their crowd, but this is more pop art than pop concert. It was like an art installation that just happened to be in a huge stadium. It would have been better housed in a theatre, but her success means that would be impractical.
The silence between songs was deafening, with just surreal video interludes.
It isn’t hard to see how some punters would find it pretentious or clinical, but Sia has always tried to do something out of the norm.
"I AM AUSTRALIAN"
— SIA (@furlerland) November 30, 2017
#Sia performing 'Titanium' at AAMI Park on November 30, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. pic.twitter.com/ynT7lbCE6I
The lack of a live band was disappointing — especially for a concert that was not cheap — but in an era of DJs selling out stadiums it’s probably less of an issue for many.
And if you were up the back watching the video screens rather squinting to see the tiny people on stage and seeing prerecorded footage then you can understand people being grumpy about paying to essentially watch an extended music video.
The main selling point of a Sia live show is that voice, heard live.
Even up the back of the stage, often out of the spotlight, it’s one of the most incredible and emotive voices in modern music.
It wasn’t until Titanium (performed as a piano ballad, not a club banger) where Sia sang ‘I am Australian’ that the concert actually felt bespoke for the first time.
The rainbow dress for encore The Greatest (the only costume change for the night) was also a nice unspoken nod from the usually vocal marriage equality activist.
Most of the tunes from Sia MK2 are here — Alive, Cheap Thrills, Big Girls Cry, Elastic Heart, Move Your Body, Chandelier and she reclaims Diamonds from Rihanna.
It would have been nice to see some earlier material for a local audience with long memories (like Clap Your Hands, The Girl You Lost to Cocaine, You’ve Changed etc) — although she chose wisely with the classic Breathe Me and Soon We’ll Be Found, the latter featuring animated arm gestures that reminded you, yes, she is enjoying herself back there.
“Thank you so much, wow, there’s so many people out there,” after Chandelier were the only words of the night, and the relief of the crowd hearing her talk was palpable.
There’s no denying it’s an unusual show, especially for a stadium concert.
Compare it to Adele, another iconic voice of our era, who managed to make an even bigger stadium seem intimate. Sia’s show is more like watching a pop concert directed by Andy Warhol.
If you want a pop star working the crowd or engaging with the audience, you’ll go home unhappy and possibly vent on Twitter. That’s what Twitter is for.
But if you’ve even seen one Sia clip on You Tube you would know what to expect — a singer with one of the voices of our generation but a pop culture square peg who likes to push the boundaries, which now extend to reinventing live concerts.
As a dancer Maddie is simply mesmerising - can the body really bend like that - she is tells the story of @sia in dance beyond this world #siamelbourne pic.twitter.com/HKdUCzx08B
— Janet (@Janet964394231) November 30, 2017
What can I say @sia provided us with a unique and captivating concert. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I will say I was probably a little too into watching @maddieziegler thanks to my dance moms addiction but oh well...#sia #DanceMoms #addiction #melbourne #aamipark
— Ruth Elizabeth (@missRElizabeth_) November 30, 2017
Okay so this is the woman responsible for creating @Sia and I wish I said more than a few words to her but oh my godddddd pic.twitter.com/tM6D4Xb6nm
— Bianca Louise (@roadtogypsylove) November 30, 2017
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