LA based singer ‘Emei’ has recently wrapped up her debut Australian tour, performing three shows in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Known for her tracks ‘Scatterbrain’ and ‘That Girl’, Emei captivated audiences across Australia’s eastern coast by showcasing her high energy and quirky performance alongside her catchy music and confronting yet genuine lyrics. Emei first made her debut in 2022 after the release of her song ‘Late To The Party’, quickly gaining her a following and giving her a boost in the alt-pop music scene. Her ability to share the most vulnerable thoughts and moments in her life through high energy tracks gave her a relatable edge, gaining her a dedicated cult-like following leading her to branch out of the United States and sell out shows all across the globe. I had the incredible opportunity to photograph her show in Brisbane at The Brightside thanks to her manager, Steve Sparrow. Huge thank you to him as this was one of the most exciting and upbeat shows I’ve photographed.

Emei’s show was opened by local Brisbane artist, Bella Amor. Bella did an acoustic set with her on vocals and her partner playing electric guitar. Bella stole the hearts of the audience with her authentic attitude and constantly talking about how grateful she was to open Emei’s debut Brisbane show and for all the people who showed up to watch her set. Bella played a mixture of both released and unreleased songs in what she claimed to be her first ever acoustic set. For two of her songs, Bella took the guitar from her boyfriend and performed with guitar in hand, one of these songs being ‘White Rabbit’. She told the audience that she had written this song for her partner, who seemed to be a breath of fresh air in her life. For the duration of the song, she would look over at him with a grin as if he were the only person in the room, causing the audience to erupt in ‘aww’s and swoon over their fairytale-like love story. Her set was only a short half an hour, but Bella’s genuine demeanour left a mark on the audience, making it a great opening set to warm up the crowd for Emei.

Emei live at The Brightside.

Photographed by Jazmin Wilkins.

Bella Amor opening for Emei.

Photographed by Jazmin Wilkins

Emei took to the stage at 9:55pm, opening the show with her hit song ‘That Girl’, which the audience quickly recognised and started screaming along to the lyrics, quickly followed up by her song ‘Irresponsible’. Emei’s show was full of smiles and her energy was high, interacting with the audience as often as she could. Halfway through the show, Emei made her way into the middle of the crowd and asked the audience to sit down with her, which was a relief for most of the crowd as the opportunity to sit down for ten minutes at a standing concert is little to none. She sat in the crowd and sung two Chinese classics from her childhood as a relaxing interlude before the other half of the show. This was a change of pace you don’t see from artists very often, adding to her uniqueness as a performer. Following this, she walked back up to the stairs and continued the performance leading onto a cover of well known song ‘Call Me Maybe’ by Carly Rae Jepsen, which was a song I myself hadn’t heard in years. Her cover was just as amazing as the original song and brought on a wave of nostalgia for the whole audience, causing everyone to scream the lyrics and jump along

to the music. Emei then played one of her latest singles ‘RABBITHOLE’, which is my personal favourite song of hers. She followed this up by playing her latest song, which at the time was unreleased, titled “ALL THESE KIDS”, which opens with a smooth saxophone before transitioning quickly into a high energy beat with rap-like vocals. In an interview she has since done with ‘Scoope’, Emei described this song as the “Queen of Hearts of this project”, the project presumably being an upcoming album that she’s working on. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Emei’s show. With this post, I’m going to be doing something slightly different and give different aspects of the show a star rating and expanding on why I gave it that specific rating. The parts of the show I will be rating are the venue and whether it suited the show/the audience, the performance (i.e interaction with audience, the energy of the show, how well the songs transition from studio recordings to live tracks), and my overall personal experience at the show.

Venue: ★★★★

The venue that Emei played at , The Brightside Indoors, is a venue I photograph and have been to often, so I’ve seen a wide variety of bands play there. I think with Emei’s style of music mixed in with it being her first ever Brisbane show, it was a perfect choice of venue. The venue isn’t huge but it can fit a fair amount of people in such a small space. The only reason I put this venue at four stars is purely because there is no photo pit at the indoor stage, so I have to get creative and move around the venue a lot which can be difficult if there’s a lot of people in the venue at one time. However as a concert goer, it’s a great venue as you can see and get pretty close to the stage no matter where you’re standing, and it’s fairly easy to move through the crowds to get where you need to go.

Performance: ★★★★★

As far as performances go, Emei’s live show cannot be faulted. Her high energy show gave for the perfect mix of photo opportunities and audience interaction. During the show, I constantly saw her pointing at and making eye contact with audience members, including myself. She kept up her energy for the entirety of the show, not once losing steam or slowing down. Between songs she would also talk to the crowd and express her gratefulness for those who came to the show and explain the stories behind her songs. Emei’s performance was extremely unique compared to other shows I’ve attended. She threw glowing beach balls into the crowd to knock around, performed a shoey on stage, and even went as far as to cut her plaits and throw them into the audience. As I mentioned earlier, Emei also came into the crowd for two songs, which she made everyone sit down to as a cool-down before finishing the other half of the show. I have to say, it’s so refreshing to be able to sit down and have a break, because standing for hours on end does get to you. Plus, Emei played an unreleased track and a cover, which were both received very well. Her songs also transitioned from studio tracks into live performances seamlessly due to her two band members and the help of instrumental backing tracks. Emei’s show was full of truly unique moments and was overall an unforgettable experience.

Overall Experience: ★★★★

My overall experience photographing Emei was great! The audience was great and very courteous to me as I was moving around taking photos. The live experience was amazing, and while alt-pop isn’t generally my style of music, I really enjoyed discovering something new, both in Emei and her opener, Bella Amor. If you like high energy, confronting music, and a unique live experience, I’d highly recommend Emei. Like I’ve said above, the only reason I’ve rated this four stars is because of the lack of a photo pit, making it slightly harder to take photos. I would definitely attend one of her shows again and would photograph her again without a doubt!

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