The Rechabite, Friday, March 6, 2026
The Rechabite was heaving with good vibes all round as Stella Donnelly returned to her hometown for the last show touring her latest and greatest album Love and Fortune. Stella captivated the packed room with many singalong moments throughout her now well-stocked catalogue of songs.
Opening the night was Anna Schneider and her band playing some beautiful ambient, dreamy pop. The four-piece warmed up the crowd nicely with a soundscape centred around Anna’s acoustic guitar and vocals, backed by a tight rhythm section and excellent synth work. The crowd were onboard and won over by the time the set finished.
Time for Ullah and the packed room to really get going. With an ever-growing list of quality tunes coming from the Perth songwriter and band, you could really get a sense that big things are coming. Mixing the very catchy, radio friendly pop songs like What Nightmares Are Made Of (the softer acoustic breakdown in the middle of the song is a gorgeous masterclass in songwriting, and another level live) and I Want It All (with a brilliant, crowd-ready singalong chorus, and the crowd obliged) with the more introspective songs like latest single Shoulder To Shoulder. The performance showed confidence and a bit of cheek, and the crown-wearing singer showed she can handle the big stage.
With the room buzzing and everyone feeling the love, Stella Donnelly arrived on stage and didn’t stop smiling. From the early cuts like Standing Ovation, Stella set a standard that kept up through the night. Synthy sounds to set the mood, then kicking into the guitar driven indie pop she is so good at. The maturity on the album came through in the live show, with Donnelly beaming and looking like she and the band were really enjoying being up there. This was absolutely reciprocated by the crowd, with plenty of singalong moments coming from songs new and old.
Other set highlights included the wonderful album title-track Love and Fortune, Mosquito and Baths. Stella kept it interesting by moving between the full band, just her and guitar, and a tight keyboard group; a great way to keep the crowd interested and guessing how she will present the songs. Boys Will Be Boys was particularly stark and emotional, one of the moments where the room took on a more sombre tone. Good art is about taking any subject matter, be it difficult or easy, and turning it into something people can absorb, think about, enjoy, hate, whatever emotions come out. The other side is being able to present it amongst a variety of other topics and moving from serious to lighter themes without losing the room. In Donnelly’s case, she has mastered the art perfectly, and the whole set blended because of this.
A great evening of music all up, and it is wonderful to see these extremely talented songwriters continuing to release high quality music and back it up with engrossing live performances.
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