Women with Big Hits - Sixties Edition

Part of the enchantment of Adelaide’s Fringe is the diversity of performers coupled with venues that allow going out to be a multi-faceted event. This is one such show. The Auditorium at Diverse-City is a Local Heritage listed building and has been used for decades as a venue providing licensed bar and food facilities, so for this event, patrons chose from a 'Show Only' or 'Meal and Show' ticket. On opening night, the venue was extremely full; patrons being squeezed in, and in my case perched crouched on a cube on the balcony where visibility was affected by a handrail and the crush of bodies. Cheerful staff wear ‘rainbow’ shirts that proclaim the significance of the venue and serve customers with great enthusiasm.

Rather than the advertised 60 minute show starting on time, the MC explained that we would wait for latecomers to get drinks. As it happened, the start was 18 minutes late and the finish was a full hour later than advertised. My heart went out to the performers, who were obviously ready, and also to any audience members who had possibly planned to see a later Fringe show that night. 

Kat Caton is an energetic and talented singer and guitarist and Jacqui Lim plays piano and keyboard and has a powerful singing voice. Together they have created Sonic Divas, known locally for a variety of different types of gigs, and this show, Women with Big Hits - The Sixties is their tribute to the successful female singers and female groups of the 1960’s. They use a sequenced live backing track and both are skilled musicians in their own right. Diverse-City is a proudly LGBTIQA+ venue and on opening night, the show was packed with many groups of women on a night out, and lots of fans who they obviously knew who were strong followers of their work. Both Lim and Caton were garbed in black and white outfits of the times; each sporting the requisite long high gloss patent leather boots (particularly appropriate later for Nancy Sinatra’s 1966 classic, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’”), that were a hallmark of the 60’s look.

Twenty different songs are included in this tribute performance, ranging from The Supremes, “Baby, Baby”, to my favourite for the night,  Burt Bacharach’s classic, a 1967 hit for Dionne Warwick, "I Say a Little Prayer". Songs were included by Dusty Springfield, Lesley Gore, Nancy Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and fabulous groups with names like The Exciters, famous for “I Know Something about Love”. A nod was made in banter to the nature of the venue and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” was delivered with lots of humour and audience approval.

Rather than a tightly packaged show, this is a pub style performance, jam-packed with toe tapping, bopping 60’s classics. A strength is the strong relationship that Lim and Caton bring to this, coupled with beautiful vocal harmony work and confident solo work in many of their songs. Their passion for the successful women singers is evident and this performance could become an even better show with more attention to production values like the scripting, developing a tighter themed music package, and the staging look of this already good Fringe event. Their season is finished, but there is undoubtedly more to hear from Sonic Divas.

Jude Hines

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