There’s no doubting that Melissa Etheridge fans were fully enjoying her live performance in Perth on Friday night.
From the moment the rock singer to the stage there were whoops and cheers. People throwing their arms in the air and jumping to their feet, many probably wishing the concert was somewhere other than the sedate ‘stay in your seats’ venue of the Riverside Theatre.
Etheridge appeared wearing a cowboy hat, standing way out from of her three band members, her guitar in hand and ready to jam.
Opening up with Ain’t It Heavy, she quickly moved on to one of her biggest hits Similar Features lifted from her 1988 self-titled debut.
With sixteen albums under her belt Etheridge has a lot of material to choose from, but fan favourites from her earliest albums were at the forefront of the show.
The Angles from her second album, 1989’s Brave and Crazy, made the set list, as did the rarely performed The Late September Dogs from her debut.
I Want to Come Over from 1995’s Your Little Secret was one of the many highlights. Etheridge’s powerful husky voice ringing out across the auditorium creating a sense of urgency, intimacy and simmering desire.
As fans jumped up to dance in the aisles or run down to the front of the stage to snap photos ushers were quick to ask people to return to their seats, leading to Etheridge cheekily saying with a wink and smile, “look at all those misbehaving women”.
The singer worked her way through No Souvenirs, Ruins, You Can Sleep While I Drive, and Chrome Plated Heart. A brilliant guitar player, Etheridge showed off her skills, and there were moments you questioned if there really were only four musicians on stage – where was all this beautiful sound coming from?
Introducing a new song, Etheridge apologised for her latest work have some more colourful language. She explained that her tour is called I’m Not Broken after a lyric from the new song A Burning Woman.
As a kid growing up in Leavenworth in Kansas, a town famous for its multiple prisons, Etheridge explained that she didn’t realise most towns didn’t have prisons as one of their major industries.
When she young Johnny Cash came to town and played at one of the prisons. Etheridge joked that his visit has made her think that “Penitentiaries must be places of fine entertainment.” Ever since she’s had the dream of doing a big concert in a women’s prison.
That dream has now come true, a new live album of the show Etheridge played at the Topeka Correctional Facility is coming soon and a Paramount+ documentary to go alongside it. A Burning Woman is a song about acceptance empowerment, and Etheridge quickly has the crowd wrapped in a call and response of “I’m not broken”.
As the show moved towards its climatic conclusion all it took was an indication from Etheridge and the restrained crowd let loose, those ‘Misbehavin’ women’ were on their feet, flooding the front of the venue and looking up at the guitar wielding rocker.
Come to My Window was the first song released in 1993 shortly after Etheridge came out. Etheridge nearly didn’t include it on her album, but tis gone on to be one of her most loved songs and a lesbian anthem. Hearing Etheridge sing this song is like hearing k.d lang sing Hallelujah, or Rufus Wainwright deliver his take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow, it’s pure heaven.
With the audience on their feet at singing along we enjoyed extended versions of I’m The Only One, and the sizzling Somebody Bring Me Some Water.
For an encore Ethridge returned for Like The Way I Do, taking us back to her earliest work, adding rocking guitar solos, taking to drums for a moment, singing along with the full-throated crowd and leaving us all on an emotional high.
Following her Perth show Melissa Etheridge is playing dates in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
