Hailing from Canberra Australia is The Other Side, a group comprised of Mike Lyons and John McCarthy, joined by Mary. They present a show called Distant Shore, a mix of folk and country with a distinctly Australian feel.
Before I go any further in this review, I should mention that I’m not sure I have ever been privy to a show with such polar opposites in terms of interest and quality. The show was essentially split into parts: numbers with the whole three piece group, where vocals were mainly provided by Mike Lyons, more country oriented songs with Mary and John, then Mary playing her solo material along with some well-chosen country covers.
The real weak parts of this show were, unfortunately and surprisingly, the whole group numbers. The vocals felt odd and just a little cabaret with the slightest twinge of an Elvis impersonator. This was off-putting audiologically and detracted from the original lyrics of McCarthy. Furthermore, there was no real harmony between the three as Lyons' volume simply drowned out anything else. I couldn’t help but feel that Mary's voice was rather underused in these sections and it seems I was right.
Her voice has a lovely tone and natural lilt that is perfect for this music. She is, in essence, the complete package for a country/folk singer. Whilst her voice is excellent, where she lets herself down at times is with her lyrics. They are fairly simplistic and often feel formulaic. There were also moments in the show where I really wanted her to go for notes and she shied away. However this, along with her lyric writing, will come with time as she matures into both her voice and craft.Another issue was that Mary often looked bored for the parts of the set that she wasn’t the lead singer in. This was particularly apparent compared with how animated she was when leading. Whilst this may be understandable, it did take away from the energy and message of these sections.
To call this a mixed bag doesn’t really do justice to how differently I felt about the two main aspects of this show. I thought that, as a three piece, The Other Side didn’t work and their sections were frankly a little surreal. Mary on the other hand was engaging and stunning to listen to. I got the feeling that this was two shows masquerading as one.
