Five years ago, Georgia Flipo was a Melbourne session drummer uploading songs in their bedroom.
Tonight, three weeks after their sophomore album topped the Australian charts, they were working the first of two capacity Enmore crowds like they’d been a rock star forever.
No opportunity for a fist pump went unpumped, drumstick twirl untwirled, or mass clap-along unclapped.
G Flip’s rapid rise to prominence might have a bit to do with their 2021 announcement that they are nonbinary, still a relatively rare thing in Australian pop culture.
Or last year’s news that they married Chrishell Stause, the actor and real estate agent of Selling Sunset fame. That’s a lot of social and celebrity zeitgeist to surf.
But anyone who came tonight for G Flip the influencer, stayed for G Flip the songwriter and performer.
The opening drum solo was a literal smack in the head for anybody who’d forgotten Flip’s musician credentials.
And while the mid-paced melancholy of 7 Days was an odd choice as setlist starter, things kicked into gear with Hyperfine, Flip roaming the stage with a dancer’s energy as their three-piece band
(including a second drummer with whom she alternated throughout) underpinned the first of tonight’s many, massive, shout-worthy hooks.
The range and power of Flip’s singing has improved markedly since this reviewer saw them at the Metro back in 2019
- the big high notes they hit in Queen were impressive enough to think maybe a vocal coach has been involved.
Flip’s songwriting and arranging is still bound to pop-rock convention, but the standouts were exemplars of the form - the rocky Rough boasted a chorus as clever as it was loud,
Australia showed a touching way with an acoustic ballad, while The Worst Person Alive was an instant classic that felt like it should be everywhere.
(If they released tonight’s version, where none other than Mike Shinoda of noughties heroes Linkin Park bounced on for an impromptu rap verse, maybe commercial radio would actually play it).