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Rising American indie-pop singer/songwriter artist Audrey Hobert lives up to the online hype as she plays the first of two sold out shows at the Forum in Melbourne with all her messy and awkwardness-by-design humour that’s full of hyper-specific lyrics and diaristic storytelling.
From the moment Hobert opens with ‘I Like to Touch People’, the atmosphere is gloriously unhinged. The track lands instantly with a crowd that already knew every lyric. Hobert stalks the stage with nervous energy, and sudden bursts of unpredictable theatrical movement to add to the excitement.
‘Drive’ follows and her conversational vocals remain front and centre amongst the band’s shimmering guitars and rhythm section that leans into all the chaotic moments.
Before her track ‘Wet Hair’ Hobert gives a raw, theatrical stream-of-consciousness monologue about growing up craving validation and stardom, being made to feel undesirable as a girl, then reclaiming power and self-worth as an adult who finally realises she was never “a three” at all. The song perfectly encapsulates Hobert’s relatable and honest appeal. On paper, many of her lyrics read like fragmented diary entries or discarded voice notes but live they become communal experiences. The audience screams every line back at her with almost alarming intensity.
Looking around the room Hobert marvels at the blue starry ceiling of the Forum and comments how she feels as though something medieval is going to happen. “It just feels so religious. Hopefully you can have some kind of a religious experience here tonight,” she laughs.
“It’s nice to speak to something higher because sometimes things aren’t going your way, and you need to will it to be so, and sometimes all you can do is get on your knees and pray, you know what I’m saying?” She says, before launching into ‘Bowling Alley.’
Mid-set highlight ‘Thirst Trap’ showcases her versatility and explodes with jittery energy. Hobert bounces across the stage throwing shapes somewhere between interpretive dance and complete collapse before a saxophonist joins in and dives onto the stage for a big solo at the final moments if the song to elevate it even further.
By the time ‘Sex and the City’ arrives, the room has fully surrendered to her world. The song’s sharp observational humour hits especially hard with the predominantly young audience, many of whom treat the chorus like a cathartic confession. Hobert’s stage banter throughout the evening remains intentionally awkward and rambling but still remaining authentic.
“I really didn’t ever see this happening for me. It’s not something I really ever wanted, and if I wanted it, it was really deep down and buried. I have a lot of fun,” she reveals she says before he next song ‘Phoebe’ which she encourages a huge singalong moment.
She closes the main set with a song about not liking famous people called ‘Chateau’. The track unfolds slowly and confidently, its final moments drenched in reverb and crowd singalongs. As the lights dim, it feels less like the end of a concert and more like the end of an over-sharing late-night conversation with several hundred close friends.
Hobert returns for an encore of ‘Sue Me’, delivering it with chaotic confidence and the audience jumps around wildly shouting every lyric at the top of their lungs. She then launches into ‘Silver Jubilee’, one of the evening’s most euphoric moments.
Without even telling the audience what to do next, everyone already knows that the final reprise of ‘Sue Me’ requires everyone in the audience put their phones away. In an era where concerts often feel filtered through dozens of glowing screens, the sudden absence of phones changes the atmosphere entirely and it transforms the show into something genuinely memorable – no cameras, no endless documentation, no immediate upload cycle. Just several thousand people existing together for four minutes inside Audrey Hobert’s strange, funny and deeply human universe.
Words by Michael Prebeg
