Turning up at Festival Hall Thursday night, you might have been forgiven for thinking you may have turned up to the wrong gig – the most eclectic crowd I have ever seen at any gig were spilling through the doors to see the one and only, incomparable Lily Allen; 20, 30 and even 40 something’s with a sprinkling of teeny boppers, tough looking dudes with tatts, punks complete with mohawks, and even groups of young blokes you would expect to see hanging at the pub around the corner downing Crownies and watching cricket.

But I guess that’s the power of this seriously kick ass songstress, drawing in such a broad fan base.

Lily breezed on stage soon after Miami Horror did their thang, in a black sparkly hot mini dress and her trademark trainers, to appreciative screams, immediately launching into Everyone’s At It from her latest album It’s Not Me, It’s You, an old favourite from Alright, Still with LDN and one of her latest tracks Back To The Start. A very clean, no fuss performance, Lily knocked out each song with precision and powerful vocals before speaking to the crowd and asking, “Alright?” (to which everyone screamed as a response), and thanking all for their support.

Lily’s soft, delicate sounding vocals are a perfect match to her deceptively sweet but biting lyrics, and I was surprised at how powerful her voice actually is being this is the first time I had seen her live; it was easily heard over the band…once they turned the base down slightly.

Lily sung all of her notable tracks, again knocking each out with a no fuss approach, and introducing each song with her reasons for penning them and what they mean to her. Crowd faves were obvious by the appreciate screams when the first few notes were played of each – Smile, The Fear and 22 all went down fantastically with the fans.

A couple of costume changes during the night were the only times Lily wandered off stage, coming out for the encore in a seriously cute leopard print, skin tight dress, launching straight into a cover of Britney’s Womanizer – which personally I think Lily did a better job of - F*ck You (yes, we went wild and sang along to this one!), and an extended version of Not Fair to end the night with, every single person on their feet busting their best country style moves!

During the show Lily also took a moment out to tell us that the Melbourne show would be her last solo gig for a time while she takes a break. Newspapers have been quick to splash ‘Lily retires’ all over their pages, but I’d be very surprised if this was actually the case. In fact, the way she said it made me think immediately that we will see her soon in another form, a collaboration maybe? Just a thought, wouldn’t want new rumors to start!

The only small grumble for me would be the venue; Festival Hall has seen some awesome acts over the years and is a legendary venue, but ventilation can be an issue for this hot box, and being a mild evening in Melbourne you could almost see humidity induced moisture in the air. But that said, as soon as the show started we immediately stopped our complaining being drawn in by the performer.

All up it was a fantastic performance from Lily which I couldn’t fault, the band was excellent, and the show flowed smoothly, although it felt like it went all too quick. Come back to us soon Lily!

Julia Innocenzi

LILY ALLEN - WOMANIZER