Review – Dimitra

With her twangy character-filled rock voice, Dimitra is an Australian answer to 90s Alanis Morissette and 70s Bonnie Tyler. The 60 minute show in the small front corner bar at the Austral features her own original songs which she sings whilst accompanying herself on solid rhythmic amplified acoustic guitar. A percussionist with some truly sensitive accompaniment is utilized for selected songs featuring hand drumming on a sound box.

The majority of her songs come with little intro, but are perfectly suited to the musical style, rocking with great lyrics begging to be belted out. For one song, Dimitra opted for a pre-recorded backing track (guitar, bass guitar, drums) to which she played and sang along to, unfortunately it seems to work against her raw natural rock style, presenting more of a manufactured pop (karaoke) singer façade. The set also includes some well-chosen covers which suit Dimitra’s vocal strength; Pink’s ‘Try’, Jewel’s ‘You Were Meant for Me’ and Guns n’ Roses Sweet ‘Child Of Mine’.

It is questionable whether with such a strong voice and solid guitar playing style she really needs to be amplified for such a small room and audience size. The sound tech doubles as a bit of a roadie for the show and his experience and (probable) consequential hearing loss, may explain the overly loud amplified volume of the entire show, especially unnecessary as Dimitra’s musical dynamics seem to range between forte (loud) and fortissimo (louder) for the most part.

The next show promises more backing tracks and a bit more of the technical side sorted out.