‘The Sound’ Is The Comforting Music TV Show We Desperately Need Right Now

At the start of this month, Amy Shark stood in an empty Bennelong Restaurant in the Sydney Opera House. Scattered around her were members of the Australian Girls Choir, standing far apart and dressed down in simple black clothes.

Shark performed ‘Everybody Rise’, her new single, and stripped it back, reducing its original thundering chorus to a trembling paean. Whether it was the ghostly vocals of the choir, or the eerie vision of a deserted Opera House — a stark symbol of the bleakness and isolation of 2020 — the resulting vision was haunting.

From Sydney to Melbourne — last night, Kate Miller-Heidke played out her new single ‘Deluded’ from the grand steps inside the city’s iconic Esplanade Hotel. In the same hour, emerging Indigenous artist Miiesha sat inside Queensland’s Capricorn Caves to perform ‘Twisting Words’, alongside Busby Marou guitarist Jeremy Marou. Flickering candles illuminated the cave as Miiesha opened the song a capella.

Perhaps the most affecting of all was Paul Kelly and Paul Grabowsky’s performance inside an empty Hamer Hall, another stark reminder of the reality of 2020.

There’s plenty of excellent examples of Australian music TV — from Countdown to the beloved Recovery to ABC’s recent joyfully chaotic The Set — but The Sound, ABC’s new hour-long weekly show produced in conjunction with Mushroom, is carving out something entirely new, and completely breathtaking.

Where Recovery and The Set relied on a kind of loose larrikinism to create magic, The Sound opts for high production and arresting visuals — each performance is as considered as an official music video, but still capture the energy of a live performance, which is not an easy balance to strike by any means. It’s made even more remarkable when you consider the entire show is being made while in the grips of COVID-19 restrictions.

“We’re dealing with something completely new,” producer Saul Shtein told Music Feeds recently. “It is not like putting a band on a stage and filming with multiple cameras live. It is varied and really depends on what style of artist we are working with, be it a solo artist or a band. They all require different approaches. One of the most extraordinary aspects is that the artists don’t need to be in the same place. You’ve got contributions like Colin Hay coming from Los Angeles, or Eskimo Joe where three band members are in one state and another member is in a completely different state and timezone.

“If you said we’re going to capture performances from people in multiple locations and have it come together with the integrity of a live performance, that is something that is completely new and likely wouldn’t have happened, had it not been for the current circumstances caused by COVID-19.”

Occupying the old Countdown slots on Sunday night, The Sounds feels unique — created within, and capturing and reacting to, our current turmoil and grief over the events of 2020.

But there’s also plenty of levity to be found. In the hands of Jane Gazzo, the former Recovery host, and the warm-voiced Zan Rowe, The Sound feels familial. Russell Crowe dropped by to help host an episode, as did Skyhooks’ Red Symons — Kylie Minogue also got involved to chat her upcoming record Disco. 

And the group cover at the end, which so far has paid tribute to bands like Mental As Anything, The Go-Betweens, and The Easybeats, is a masterclass of logistics — with acts scattered across the globe knitted together seamlessly.

Perhaps more than any other music show in recent years, The Sound emphasises the power of performance above all other elements. Transformational, comforting, uplifting, sorrowful — all the aspects of physical performance and connection that we’re currently deprived of. For that reason, it feels like totally necessary viewing right now.

Check out some of our favourite performances below. The Sound is on every Sunday night at 5.30pm on ABC TV.

---

Photo Credit: James Pellegrino/Mushroom Creative, Mushroom Creative