Live Review: Safia

Canberrans Safia crashed Adelaide’s festival month with their headline tour, casually selling out Pirie & Co Social Club on a Saturday night. That, in itself, is no small feat considering how much else was going on in town – but not surprising given the talent of these particular up and comers.

The three-piece immediately looked comfortable on stage, going about their work with quiet passion. Romantic synths, creamy vocals and relaxed bass swirled around in the electric sound-worlds Safia generated on stage. Their music is a transportative blend of smooth indie-pop, calypso chimes and dance floor-filling electro; the result is an eclectically influenced damn good time.

The packed underground venue heaved throughout Safia’s short but sweetly sweaty set. Perhaps surprisingly, they opened with the proto-anthemic You Are The One and very quickly had the room onside. The crowd burst out in group-hugs and arms on shoulders of swaying for the slow-jam first half of Listen To Soul, Listen To Blues – then came the drop and you couldn’t stop the kids from moving. The remixed Tear It Down went down well, but the consistent party-time vibe Safia pumped out made it pretty hard to pick highlights from the show.

There’s a lot to be said for incorporating live instrumentation into otherwise electro-centric music; the energy and presence that Safia were able to generate with the live drums and bass was very strong. Admittedly, some of the nuances of their studio tracks were lost in the live mix, but they were replaced with engaging instrumentation, and it was a worthy trade – that time spent in rock cover bands not being wasted at all.

The full house was testament to how much momentum Safia have generated for themselves in their year and a bit of being on the national scene. Massive collaboration with fellow Capital Territorians, Peking Duk, Take Me Over; a spot on the Groovin The Moo line-up; support slots for the likes of Lorde and Disclosure; as well as some minor film-clip plagiarism controversy have accelerated Safia’s popularity, but Saturday’s show left little doubt that they can back up the hype with the good sounds.