An Evening Without Kate Bush, Friday 16 February, Le Cascadeur at The Garden of Unearthly Delights.

I walked into An Evening Without Kate Bush with zero expectations, mainly because Kate Bush, being so iconoclastic and possessing a career of such length and diversity, would be near impossible for a straight tribute show to do justice to. And I was right.

But then a straight tribute to Kate Bush isn’t what Sarah-Louise Young offers. She gives the audience something incredibly special. She gives everyone an experience of Kate Bush. This is not a straight tribute show with a person singing songs with a band behind her, this is a love letter to Kate, her fans, her music, her life and everything that comes with it.

From the outset, when Sarah-Louise emerged from the darkness singing And Dream of Sheep, complete with flashing red light, the audience was in the palm of her hands. To tackle such a song, from Kate’s The Ninth Wave, as the opener, is the sign of someone completely at ease with her role and the material on hand. Heck, even Kate didn’t open her Before The Dawn shows with that one. It’s a brave choice.

Sarah-Louise doesn’t limit herself to just singing. Her props are on full display on stage, and she uses them as she sees fit. She gives commentary about her life-long love of Kate, including a hilarious story about singing James and the Cold Gun in a leotard, dancing her best Kate Bush moves before a school assembly. She breaks down Kate’s signature moves using a cape and wig gifted to her by a now retired Kate Bush impersonator.

Sarah-Louise engages the audience. She works out who the Kate Bush fans are, who has a passing interest and who has been dragged along as a partner, and, of course, who has come via the Magical Mystery Bus and deposited to the side of the tent. It doesn’t matter to Sarah-Louise if you’re a fan, or a casual fan, or a non-fan – as she explains, we’re all family. We are all Kate Bush. She asks for favourite songs (Pull Out The Pin being the one that impressed her the most – as an aside, that song was inspired by Australian wartime cinematographer Neil Davis and his work in Vietnam) and tells people that everyone has at least one Kate Bush song in them.

Towards the end, after a set that includes some definite surprises, she brings people from the audience on stage. Three young people sing backing vocals, and two others* are asked up to recreate the slow dance that Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush do in the video of Don’t Give Up while she serenades them to Kate’s section of the duet.

Sarah-Louise makes it clear, Kate Bush’s fans, the Fish People, are a family. A community, and they all admire the same person: Kate.

The finale is mighty and needs to be seen. Suffice to say, where Sarah-Louise goes, the audience follows.

The music is pre-recorded, of course, but Sarah-Louise’s vocals need to be heard to be believed. She tackles some of Kate’s more challenging songs and does them to near perfection. To hear her sing, complete with warbles, squeals, shrieks and ad-libs, be it Babooshka in Russian (yes, you read that right), Running Up That Hill or Army Dreamers (complete with two large eyes blinking in time) or a mighty yelp leading into Wuthering heights, is to be in the presence of a performer who knows exactly what she can do. Sarah-Louise Young gives it her all. She is a consummate performer who has found her calling in life.

If Kate Bush won’t come to the world, then Sarah-Louise will. And the audience will not be disappointed.

Five stars

An Evening Without Kate Bush is running at Le Cascadeur at The Garden of Unearthly Delights until Saturday 02 March. Grab your tickets HERE

*The couple called up on the preview night were none other than myself and my wife, Lyndal, who looks so much like Kate Bush that Sarah-Louise did a double take when she came out to sing, coming over a few times to check, and speaking with us to make sure that Kate hadn’t actually turned up to her show, in Adelaide, on a Friday evening. Let’s face it, as outlandish as it might seem to most people, Kate turning up is a very Kate Bush move. Even some in the audience did a double take when Lyndal walked on stage and turned to face them, after Sarah-Louise had told them that someone in the front row looked more like Kate than Kate does. Such joy and delight!

Review by Daniel Best