If you know anything about Genesis Owusu‘s history with the Enmore Theatre, you know that Monday night carried a little extra weight.
But first, Devaura. Born in Aotearoa and based in Aus, Devaura burst onto the scene in 2023 and has been racking up accolades ever since, standout sets at BIG SOUND and SXSW Sydney, and a delightful debut EP. I’ve caught her at the Lansdowne and the Factory, small rooms, low ceilings and packed with devoted fans. She was magnetic in both. But watching her at the Enmore on Monday, I kept thinking: this is the right venue for her. Her live shows mix seamless live beats with soulful vocals and a stage presence that fills a room, and she filled this one.
Genesis Owusu – Kofi Owusu-Ansah, Ghanaian-born, Canberra-raised broke through with his 2021 debut ‘Smiling with No Teeth’, which swept the ARIAs and topped Rolling Stone Australia’s list of the best Australian albums of the decade so far. He followed it with ‘STRUGGLER’ in 2023, played Lollapalooza and Primavera, headlined the Sydney Opera House. The trajectory has been straight up. He is, without much argument, one of the most exciting artists Australia has ever produced.
Which brings us back to the Enmore. In 2022, riding the wave of ‘Smiling with No Teeth’, the floor literally collapsed three songs into his set, forcing the show to stop and the famous Enmore Theatre carpet to sag under the weight of so many disappointed fans. It was huge news, a perfect summary of the groundbreaking excitement he was generating across Aus. And now, he’s back!
The newest album, ‘REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE’, dropped just three days ago (check out Deb Pelser’s cut-throat review here). He opened with ‘PIRATE RADIO’ and ‘STAMPEDE’ and the room was gone within thirty seconds. The band hit the first chorus and you could feel the whole crowd bounce. This was never going to be a casual Monday night. The new releases sat alongside ‘Smiling with No Teeth’ and ‘STRUGGLER’ cuts, and Owusu wouldn’t stop moving. ‘HELLSTAR’ was enormous, all that squelching funk filling the theatre, freaking delicious. ‘DEATH CULT ZOMBIE’ went completely feral, which was absolutely no surprise.
‘MOST NORMAL AMERICAN VOTER’ got one of the biggest reactions of the night, which tells you everything about how immediate this record is. He pulled it back for ‘LIFE KEEPS GOING’, gave the room a minute to breathe, then kicked the doors back open for the finish. The production was seriously impressive throughout, the band was world-class. And this time the floor held, barely.
Genesis Owusu is riding the Red Star Wu’s Pirate Radio Tour down through Naarm/Melbourne and Kaurna Land/Adelaide over the next week, before heading across EU/UK next month.
