Rex Orange County, whose real name is Alexander O’Connor, is an English recording artist and songwriter known for blending genres like indie pop, jazz, and hip-hop. Tonight he is playing the Hordern Pavilion, it is his second Sydney show and had to be added because of an overwhelming demand for tickets.
Rex walks on stage to thunderous applause. The Intro is low key with Rex seated alone at the keyboard, it seems like he’s both priest and iconoclast. Then, with a sudden flourish, the sun and moon curtains behind him burst open to reveal his backing band bathed in a kaleidoscope of light.
If it’s raw emotional exorcism you’re after, you’ve come to the right place. Rex delivers in spades, veering from fragility to emboldened exuberance. Every note he sings is imbued with a sincerity, it feels like he’s offering the audience a direct line to his soul, unfiltered and unvarnished. He doesn’t stand still for a minute, and with vigorous strides and energetic leaps, dances across the stage, a kinetic embodiment of the music that fills the air.
His fans, who I suspect have all grown up on social media, are enthralled because just for a moment, the boundary between artist and audience, pretence and reality, fades away, and we are all left wading in the raw, tumultuous sea of human emotion.
Check it out below.
