CMAT is appearing at the the Enmore Theatre in Sydney tonight as part of her EURO-COUNTRY tour, bringing her sharply observed pop-country songwriting to a room that suits both its scale and its emotional range. Fresh from the release of EURO-COUNTRY, she moves easily between theatrical flourishes and self-aware humour, balancing widescreen choruses with moments that feel deliberately unguarded.
Backseat Mafia has followed CMAT’s rise closely, catching her last year at The Factory Theatre in Sydney and previously giving EURO-COUNTRY a strong review for its clarity, ambition and emotional reach. Seeing those songs now expanded for a larger room underlines just how quickly her live presence has grown.
The album itself has become a defining point in CMAT’s trajectory, praised for folding classic country structures into contemporary pop while pulling from a wider set of influences that stretch across decades. Live, those contradictions sharpen rather than blur, with songs that pivot between sincerity and irony without losing momentum.
Opening the night is Holiday Sidewinder, whose glossy, emotionally direct pop warms the room and provides a fitting counterpoint. Her set leans into atmosphere and feeling, setting the tone without overstating it.
A relentless run of touring and festival appearances has clearly shaped the confidence of CMAT’s performance, which she opens by appearing on the Enmore’s balcony, surprising fans seated above before descending to the stage for the second song, the hilariously titled ‘Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’. Dressed in white in what she calls her “Little Lord Fauntleroy” outfit, she’s backed by a band that stays tight and unfussy, never missing a beat as she swings confidently through the hits. Before launching into ‘Take A Sexy Picture of Me’, CMAT pauses to explain how the song grew out of a wave of cruel comments about her appearance following a BBC video, reframing it as a moment of defiance rather than bitterness. ‘Running/Planning’ lands as one of the night’s clearest high points, the Enmore singing every word back at her, a reminder of how quickly her audience has grown since last year’s Factory Theatre show. After initially insisting she won’t do it, CMAT closes the night in character, downing a beer from one of her cowboy boots in an unavoidable, crowd-pleasing shoey. What lands most strongly tonight isn’t the spectacle but the connection, a sense that CMAT’s audience is growing in step with her confidence.
Images Deb Pelser
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