Caroline Polachek may be spiralling, but she’s as in-control as ever
Nearly a half-decade on from her lauded solo debut Pang, acclaimed art-pop auteur Caroline Polachek released her second studio album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You this Valentine’s Day.
Already a staple favourite of music publications’ year-end rankings, Desire is a tapestry on which Polachek weaves her crystalline voice and cryptic lyricism into an eclectic sonic palette (bagpipes, field recordings, baby laughter, orchestra hits) with radio-ready grooves.
This February saw Polachek embark on The Spiraling Tour, which snaked its way across the northern hemisphere for several months before arriving down under this week, marking her first solo headline tour to reach Australia.
After gracing the Sydney Opera House on Monday, Polachek headed west two nights later to the Enmore Theatre, where I was able to witness the Spiraling for myself.
The nine p.m. show was prefaced by a set from NYC-based support act True Blue, who remained on stage throughout the night as Polachek’s bassist, and offered quite a various selection of wispy electro-pop during her time opening.
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The intermission bridging the opener and main act was drawn to a close with a fade to total blackness, through which the primal opening wail of “Welcome to My Island” eventually sliced and tore the audience into hollering applause.
After the second song of the night, “Hit Me Where It Hurts”, Polachek made her first address to the audience, during which she announced that she would be performing all twelve Desire tracks, which she proceeded to do in almost exactly the order of the tracklist.
Strewn over the course of the sophomore-heavy set were the biggest hitters from the preceding Pang, resulting in arguably the perfect selection of Polachek’s music for a live context.
At one point between songs, Polachek – who has donned many a cowboy boot – referred to herself as a “horse girl”, but lamented that she “horse-girled too close to the sun” earlier that day, laughing that she had fallen off a horse during a shoot with Vogue Australia.
As the tour of what is, visually, a very Mediterranean album cycle (with particular reference to ancient Greek iconography), the concert took place in a landscape of scaled-down volcanoes inspired by those of west Italy. The peaks started to smoke, appropriately, during the song “Smoke” – one of the show’s final numbers.
While my ticket reads that I saw the show from up in the crimson-cushioned lounge, seated in its furthest reaches, the degree of exhilaration with which The Spiraling Tour instilled in me was as though my hands were gripping the stage barricade.
I may have managed to resist the repeated urge to turn to the couple next to me and remark “isn’t she just fabulous?”, but whether I contained the urges to dance erratically in my seat and dissonantly harmonise Polachek’s vocal runs is a separate issue.
Although Polachek and her band slinked away into stage left after performing her signature song (“So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings”), the prospect of an encore remained inevitable and in high demand.
Polachek returned with the Desire album track “Hopedrunk Everasking”, which she performed alone, before bringing the show to a close with the glorious Pang single “Door”, rousing a standing ovation that only seemed to intensify as it persisted.
Even from as far back as I was, Polachek’s overwhelmed delight with the fervent reception beamed with total clarity.
By Harrison Jones
