With the recent release of his catchy folk single Breakneck Speed on April 14th Kim Churchill has returned home for a string of headlining gigs almost three years since he first made waves in Australia when he cracked Triple J’s hottest 100 with Window To The Sky in 2014.

This was the first time I had been to the Old Museum, Brisbane so I was not sure what kind of atmosphere it would be as a live music venue, but Churchill said that he purposely chose locations that were different, and aesthetically appealing to create an ambient atmosphere for the audience. "Sydney is a beautiful hall I saw James Blake in a few years ago and have dreamt of playing since. Brisbane is an old museum and Melbourne is old meat market!" - Churchill.

The venue had plenty of seating but I was straight to the front with a crowd of people that were obviously avid fans of Churchill’s. Electro-pop group Goldmember were the support act, and even though I first thought of it as a weird combination for an evening of music the contrast to Churchill’s folk/ blues sound was a good way to get the crowd pumped for when he took stage. Goldmember had a strong set, and had everyone dancing including those in the seating behind me. Churchill opened at 9.00pm with his two instrumentalists behind him supporting his performance that included his crisp vocals, master guitar skills (he studied classical guitar for 10 years), kick drums, keys, and incredible blues harp (harmonica) solos.

The nearly two hour set consisted of older songs like Rosemary, Smile As He Goes Home, and two of the crowd favourites Canopy and Window To The Sky. He ended the set with his spirited new track Breakneck Speed which had fans at the front dancing and singing loudly. Throughout the gig Churchill had a graceful presence and between songs acknowledged the crowd humbly with quirky jokes and stories about his time on the road.

Churchill’s encore brought his two instrumentalists front stage with him for an accapella piece; the crowd went silent as the three talented musicians harmonised effortlessly, and did jazz scatts over the top of one another creating a song with three voices. I heard the guy next to me who had been singing the lyrics to all of Churchill’s songs say “This is amazing!”, and that sentence pretty much sums up the whole performance.

Brianna Denmeade