By Lisa Diedricks

Artist: Matt Corby

Date / Venue: Saturday April 23rd, 2016 - Town Hall, Auckland

As he gracefully entered onto the stage, a sold out crowd began to stamp their feet, clap their hands and release a roar of excitement through the walls of Town Hall. Matt Corby ladies and gentleman, the charismatic angel from Australia, graced our shores last night with his first out of 2 sold out shows, and absolutely brought the entire house into a captivating musical experience.

The room was jam packed with people of all ages, shoulder to shoulder, waiting for the man that is Matt Corby, with songs from his latest album'Telluric', Corby drew in everyone’s attention with stripped down renditions of 'Monday' and 'Empires Attraction' and well known classics like 'Resolution' and 'Brother' the crowd was engrossed in all that Corby was delivering.

At concerts, it’s a given that you are probably going to see a lot of camera and pictures being taken, but something that I noticed about last night show is that, the audience was more interested in listening to every note and spoken word that Matt delivered. It was amazing to see an entire room fall silent to hear one man and his loop pedal bring an entire euphoric atmosphere to everyone. There were even some audience members telling others to be quiet so they could hear.

Corby, dressed in his long grey sweater and jeans, at one stage, announced to everyone that he was indeed taking his shoes off, and they remained off for majority of the show. He is such a breath of fresh air in this industry and he without a doubt brings originality and a sense of calmness to the stage and to music, that there are constant smiles when he is around. I mean he’s not bad on the eyes too, and was really sweet to see him take pictures with a few fans straight after the show.

The show itself was incredible and was the perfect venue, as it felt a lot more intimate and personal. The acoustics were perfect and his voice trailed through the entire venue. For someone who has been compared to the likes of “Jeff Buckley” and “Nick Drake” It is not surprising that Matt, has attracted fans from all over the world, and I think we can all be grateful he came back into music from taking a 12 month break back in 2011-2012.

After being in the presence of astounding wailing falsettos, folky boom claps and beautiful, storytelling lyrics, it’s not hard to figure who’s going to be this year’s dark horse. I’m so honoured I got to see this man live and this concert, with its simplistic yet ground-breaking feel, it’s sure to be the talk this week!