Live Review: The Teskey Brothers, Harmony Byrne

The Teskey Brothers are on fire at the moment, with the band’s second album, Run Home Slow, nabbing a swag of ARIA nominations. Such recognition is matched by a groundswell of support from a growing fanbase, with tonight’s show being the first of two sold-out gigs at The Gov in Adelaide.

Harmony Byrne was a fitting support act. The singer, early in her set, shared that some of her songs had been written while sharing a house with The Teskey Brothers. Their influence shined through in her music, she and her three-piece backing band performing in a style not too dissimilar from the headliners. Byrne is clearly a huge talent, with a soulful vocal range and multi-instrumental skills which saw her perform on guitar and flute. Her final song was performed a cappella and blew us away.

The Teskey Brothers took to the stage not long after, with the four core band members joined by a two-piece brass section and a keyboard player. After opening with Man Of The Universe from the new album, singer Josh Teskey advised that we were going to be guinea pigs for their new material. He later joked, “You guys are the guinea pigs, we are the scientists,” although their music seems more like magic than science.

Up next was Let Me Let You Down, offering a mix of styles, from James Brown to BB King. The start of Crying Shame, the opening track from debut album Half Mile Harvest was met by a gasp of delight from the crowd – a clear favourite. 

Say You’ll Do was introduced as a song written by Sam Teskey and featured his sublime blues guitar licks. During the song, the band turned and faced the brass section, as if in reverence. Josh Teskey praised the trumpet and trombone players with a quick compliment: “They’re not musicians, they’re animals.”

As a change of pace, one of the newer songs, San Francisco, featured acoustic guitar. Sunshine Baby was described by Josh Teskey as “a song from the future”, but had an old-timey sound that saw bass player Brendon Love perform on banjo “for the first time ever… well, apart from the other night”.

From the start, the collective's sound was impressive and world-class, while the mood in the room was festive. The beauty of The Teskey Brothers is that you don’t have to be a blues fan to love what they do live – it's an even more enriching experience than what is captured on their records.

Sublime new song Hold Me was a stunning finale that turned into a huge singalong, with the entire seven-piece band venturing into the crowd.