Friday, January 11

Dicey Riley’s

Tickets: Free entry

Firelucy have performing down pat. While the four-piece pop-rock band have only been together for a year, three of the four musicians are seasoned theatre performers in the Illawarra scene, giving them an edge during live performances.

"Our singer is a performer, our keyboard player is a singer, a dancer and an actor, and I play in a lot of the orchestras at the Roo Theatre," drummer Claire Wright says.

"It just means we're quite comfortable on stage and are good at performing for audiences because we've had so much experience.

Illawarra gig guide

"And I guess as far as our songwriting is concerned, we take things quite literally, so our songs are quite honest. Theatre is all about telling stories through music, and I think we bring a lot of that into our songs as well."

Where other musicians might complain about the tiring tour schedule necessary to promote a new band, Wright says the nights Firelucy perform are welcome breaks from the hectic schedule of putting together a new show.

"We all have a musical background, so it was a really good way for us to do something not quite as intense as theatre. When you're doing a show, it's a three-month rehearsal schedule and then a week of shows and then nothing, while this is something we can commit to regularly."

Two of the band members, singer Jo, and piano-keys player Sean, are classically trained musicians, giving another edge to the band when it comes to composing songs.

Wright finds it difficult to pinpoint what genre Firelucy falls into because they draw from so many different areas of music.

"I'd say we're pop-rock with a jazz influence, a bit of a swing sound as well, really drawing upon softer, mellow, sort of warm sounds from pop and rock."

Their music also stands out for the absence of a guitar. Firelucy had a guitarist but, having musicians on guitar and piano who were unafraid to go crazy meant the finished product became too confusing. The guitarist was happy to make way for his brother, Joel, to take his place on bass, and allow the piano to become the lead instrument.

"It brings quite a different dynamic if you have a piano doing the lead melodies rather than the guitar," Wright says. "We find that you can play a lot more different things and it's a richer and fuller sound overall because you have that low end sound on the bass."

Tonight's gig is also the launch of the band's first EP, Puppet.