There was not much room to move in the courtyard behind The Welder’s Dog on Thursday afternoon.
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Tori Forsyth’s concert, previewing the songs from her forthcoming debut album, Dawn Of The Dark, was originally booked to take place inside the new Tamworth venue.
But demand for tickets was high, and after all 80 tickets had been sold before day one of the festival, plans were made to move the show out the back of the venue, which more than doubled capacity.
More than 100 extra tickets went on sale just days before the gig, and were duly snapped up by festival goers.
Once the show got underway, Grave Robber’s Daughter, the first single which dropped last year was included early on the set list, and it was one of the few songs most of the audience would have heard before.
One audience member who would be very familiar with all the new songs though, was the album’s producer Shane Nicholson, who joined Forsyth on stage for a duet.
He wasn’t the only guest artist on the stage.
When the 22-year-old alt-country singer-songwriter welcomed Aleyce Simmonds to the stage near the end of the show to sing a duet, she thanked Simmonds for managing her career and ‘managing her life’.
The pair sang Kings Horses, which Forsyth released as a single last year. Watch them sing it here:
With a musical style that is influenced by a variety of artists, Forsyth, who signed a record deal with Lost Highway Australia last year, falls into the alt country genre.
“I always think it’s really funny to categorise your music, but with alt country I do feel like it doesn’t give you this direct ‘you have to stay in this genre or else you’ve gone of the rails or whatever’, you can kind of float in and out of country,” Forsyth said prior to the festival.
The young singer-songwriter said the alt country label suited her style of music, which is all about experimenting with new sounds.
“I think the main genre is definitely country, but with alt country it gives you that freedom to be able experiment with different sounds and not be promising a country album and giving them a metal album, it means you’re able to float.
“For me that’s really good because all of my musical influences vary a fair bit.”
Dawn Of The Dark is due to be available on May 25 and the album’s second single, In The Morning, was released last week.
