Live Review: Owl Eyes - National Gallery Of Victoria

The Friday night series returns for National Gallery Of Victoria's (NGV) winter exhibition Italian Masterpieces. The atmosphere of the occasion is unique as it feels as if the Friday night work drinks crowd detour to get some culture. Nonetheless, it is a welcome opportunity to peruse the exhibition that features works from 16th to 18th century Italian artists from the Prado National Museum.  The curators from the Prado, Miguel Falomir Faus and Andrés Ubeda de los Cobos, and the NGV's coordinating curator Laurie Benson present an exhibition that encompasses varied subject material, artistic styles and not too many Jesus portraits – the latter being the item for which they should be most congratulated. Highlights include Andrea di Lione's Elephants In A Circus and Viviano Codazzi & Domenico Gargiulo (Micco Spadaro), Perspectival View Of A Roman Amphitheatre.

Owl Eyes (aka Brooke Addamo) takes the stage in the Great Hall complete with power dance moves and tracks from her debut album Nightswim. Addamo does her best to rev up the crowd but, throughout the entire set, she fluctuates from appearing remarkably out of place to being downright awkward. Essentially her sound (stock standard electro-pop) is not suitable for the context, in this case the Great Hall of the NGV decked out like a jazz lounge filled with people who are old enough to have gone to jazz lounges when they were a happening thing. Addamo, furthermore, fails to adapt her act to the situation at hand and her attempts to engage the audience do her no favours; she thanks the obviously babbling audience for being so quiet and bizarrely asks tech staff to dim the stage lights so she can “be closer to the people”. They don't comply.

However, the audience members who attend the performance, and actually want to see it, show their appreciation by applauding warmly after each song. Golden Lies and Hurricane are particularly well received and the projections of clouds directly behind the stage suit the Great Hall's cavernous surroundings. Addamo's announcement that she is going to play a Daft Punk cover creates a momentary buzz of excitement until she quickly clarifies that it isn't Get Lucky. Nevertheless, her sultry adaptation of Something About Us (Love Theme From Interstella 5555) does the original justice. Finishing the set with Nightswim, Addamo farewells the crowd with profuse “thank you”s and everyone, seemingly relieved, takes the opportunity to return to their antipasto platters and glasses of red.