It was a cool, slightly breezy night as crowds milled about outside the Astor, eagerly waiting for the doors to open. The minibus carrying Stephen Sanchez and Molly Millington to the event pulled around the corner of the Astor, Sanchez looking stunned by the extraordinarily long line snaking around the block. That line suddenly jumped as punters surged forward in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the young crooner as he entered the back doors of the Astor. Everyone was friendly and chitter chattering amongst themselves, in anticipation of the night to come. Finally the doors opened and people flooded into the sold out venue, hitting the 976 capacity with such ease that Sanchez added a second show on the Perth leg, to kick start his tour.
Sanchez had brought along pop punk power princess Molly Millington as his special guest on this leg of the tour, an incredibly talented musician in her own right. She appeared on stage in an amazing outfit; a red tulle veil, a red corset with puffy sleeves and tassels down the arms and red tights with undies over them, a la Superman. Her slicked back jet black hair ending in two long plaits. Millington was here in all of her outstanding costumed glory and ready to show us why!
Millington had brought on stage with her a drummer who never missed a beat as Millington sang her heart out through song after song. The backing track providing the perfect backdrop of fat bouncing bass lines to carry her vocals along. She soon ditched the veil and the red tassel sleeves after a song, throwing them to the side of the stage. She shared an anecdote of how she loves costumes and dressing up for her shows. She told the crowd how she didn’t expect so much of her derriere to be exposed in the tights and undies combo, and brought men’s undies thinking they would cover more, not expecting them to have an added scrunch effect. I thought she looked fabulous regardless!
Her next few songs picked up the pace with tones of heartbreak and love lost, grief of a life that should have been and would not be, and how to deal with all of that while surviving and living life every day. Millingtons tracks were definitely an expression of the hurt and disappointment she had gone through and an honest reflection of her own actions during that time. She somehow delivered such heartfelt passionate tunes while dancing around and maintaining all the energy on stage! Millington is one part pop princess powerhouse, one part performance artist, all other parts insanely talented and amazing!
If you like Hole, No Doubt or Olivia Rodrigo, give Molly Millington a whirl!
GALLERY
The stage was dark and lit by a few spotlights beaming from behind the microphone as a track overhead started telling a tale that happened long ago, on radio WWLB. Suddenly the lights Sanchez was there, like a beautiful backlit angel before us at the microphone, tracked by his keys player, singing into the darkness of the Astor. His incredible vocals crooning Something About Her into the crowd that was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. His strong and rich velvety voice was like a cool fan breeze, on a hot day as it washed over the crowd. Sanchez continued swooning the crowd with his song of a terrifying love and when he finished, there were applause and cheers from the crowd that was loud enough to lift the roof off the Astor.
The rest of the band joined Sanchez wearing black suits, white shirts and black ties, as though they had stepped out of an episode of Mad Men. Sanchez soon ripped his shirt off, revealing his ripped physique to furious cheers and applause by the female-dominated audience, claiming ‘its hot in here’. It was warm, but it just got a lot hotter judging by all the women jumping up and down with excitement! Sanchez elevated himself from breezy fan on a warm day to mug of hot chocolate on a freezing day instantly.
Launching into his next song that put him on the map musically, Evangeline, Sanchez showed us how to shimmy and shake as he made his way across the stage, swirling his hips and mesmerising the crowd. His style is similar to Elvis in his hot and spicy era of the 1950s, or even Beatles level rock star of the 1960s. The young crooner, only 21, has an immense vocal range, he hit the highest of the high notes that could lift the roof off the venue, and nailed the low notes perfectly. He is only two octaves away from Aerosmith singer, Steve Tyler. His hips swung the crowd into his next track, I Need You Most Of All, as the women in the crowd swooned as Sanchez crooned.
I should stop here and give a shout out to all the boyfriends and husbands in the audience – there weren’t that many of you, but bravo for all the jacket-holding, picture-taking and drink-nursing I saw you doing so your wives and girlfriends could enjoy the night with the girls, you guys are the real MVPs!
Sanchez shouted ‘where are all my pretty women at?’ and was met with a lady scream so loud that you would think the Beatles had just landed in Australia from the 1960s and we were at the airport to meet them off the plane! It was a perfect rendition of Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman as he jived his way across the stage and ended the song with a roll of the tongue Grrrrr! Sanchez had leg shaking, hip swivelling down to a fine art by the time he launched into his brand new number, The Other Side. This was a sensual sultry number that Sanchez belted out to the screams of the fans in the crowd. He followed that up with another sultry number, Doesn’t Do Me Any Good and slowed the pace down a bit. If you closed your eyes, you were instantly transported to an old speak-easy cigar lounge.
Sanchez proved he could slow it right down when needed as he grabbed an acoustic guitar, lit with just a spotlight and sang Fame or Fortune, a song he wrote after a previous trip down under. It’s a beautiful soulful heartfelt number, about how he would have nothing if he didn’t have love and fame or fortune didn’t matter. The acoustic was swapped for an electric guitar as he turned to playing Emotional Vacation and after the beautiful melody previous, I felt like I needed an emotional vacation! Thankfully this track was rockier, heavier and had the crowds dancing along.
You could tell Sanchez and the band were enjoying themselves on stage because their smiles did not leave their faces, even while he was singing hit after hit. He kept up the pace with Howling, with the crowd howling like a wolf for Sanchez! He continued the energy and continued dancing and swivelling his hips on stage to make even Elvis proud as the synthy beats of High played through. Sanchez noting that this was such a tremendous way to start the tour and in my opinion, a tremendous way to start the week too! He said it was unbelievable that everyone knew every word as the crowd sang them back to him throughout all his songs. He looked like he was loving every minute of being on stage performing for us on the first night of his tour, and the crowd were loving every minute too. Sanchez ended the night with Until I Found You and many moments where the crowd were singing the words for him that left him speechless. The final song, Shake, saw the audience erupt into a burst of energy as Sanchez swivelled his hips and gyrated across the stage with the core strength of a strength training gyms’ combined membership base, to raucous cheers and applause. Sanchez sounds amazing in his studio work that is available on all of the streaming services, but seeing him in real life on stage was absolutely phenomenal and a truly fire performance!
If you like the smooth tones of Elvis, the highs and lows of Roy Orbison or the velvety voice of Chris Isaak then you will enjoy the beautiful crooning of Stephen Sanchez.
Setlist: Something About Her, Evangeline, I Need You Most Of All, Only Girl, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison cover), The Other Side, Doesn’t Do Me Any Good, No One Knows, Be More, Fame Or Fortune, Emotional Vacation, Howling, High, Until I Found You, Shake.
Gallery
With special thanks to Nicole at Frontier Touring for the media accreditation
All Image Credit Shotweiler Photography
