Australian chanteuse Sia Furler brought her music alive at Warehouse Live's Studio on Wednesday, March 12. Full review after the jump

Sia brought about a first for me at the Warehouse: I'd never before seen a show there that included more females in the audience than males. Initially, this excited me - for once I could see over the majority of the audience's heads, so surely I would be able to easily catch all the on-stage action. I soon discovered a major flaw in my train of thought.

Sia and her band made their entrance clad in glow-in-the-dark costumes, with "Gonna Fly Now" filling the air. They launched into "Buttons", one of the bonus tracks from her latest album, some people have REAL problems. And I quickly realized my error: Sia's short too, so it didn't matter that much of the audience was my height or shorter. But never mind that - this girl can sing. I was genuinely impressed with the way her voice sounded live, and I found her quirky personality charming.

The decorations had Sia's stamp all over them: colored fluorescent lights shaped like flowers (or something) provided the backdrop, and groups of stuffed animals were scattered across the stage. She acknowledged that much of her earlier work had a darker, more downtempo sound, and explained her shift to child-like happiness by saying that she got "a lot of therapy" and is now (insert Aussie accent here) "really, really happy". Need proof? She hopped off the stage several times to hug admiring fans. Her band's in on the weirdness too - during one of Sia's lengthier monologues, they all dropped to the floor and got busy. Doing sit-ups, that is. This is sort of a picture of that, but you'll have to ignore the inadvertent prominence of a couple getting their picture taken (cropping? What's that?):

Sia performed many other songs from some people have REAL problems - eight more, in fact: "Little Black Sandals", "Lentil", "Day Too Soon", "Academia", "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine", "You Have Been Loved", "Playground", and "Death By Chocolate". She blanked on the lyrics near the beginning of "Death By Chocolate", but quickly recovered with the help of some uber-fans in the front row. Two tunes were pulled out of the Colour the Small One vault - "Sunday" and "Breathe Me", the latter of which was prominently featured on the finale of Six Feet Under and inspired a singalong at her show. Sia also sang a new song that will be included on a new album scheduled for release in 2009; Eggs captured a video of it that I'd love to share with you, but I accidentally deleted it, along with a clip of "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine" and a bunch of pictures. I rock.

Sia also dusted off a couple of her Zero 7 collaborations, performing "Destiny" near the end of her set and offering up "Somersault" as the encore. Though I love her downtempo trip-hop work with Zero 7, I'm really digging the happier new direction of her sound. Her voice is surprisingly soulful and powerful, and I look forward to seeing what the future has in store for her.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable show and I'd recommend catching her live if she stops by a town near you. Go even if you're a straight dude - bring a chick, and maybe you'll get lucky enough to spend the whole show mugging down. Much like the couple who stood (groped?) directly in front of me. Anyway, I managed to not delete two of the videos Eggs captured. Enjoy:

"Breathe Me":

"Somersault":

Cereal's rating: 8.04565/10 spoons. Great voice, cute personality.

We missed opener Har Mar Superstar's set, but we saw him on the way out. He looks a little like Ron Jeremy, and he apparently gets down to nothing but his undies and socks during his performance. Oh, and he also played the role of Dancin' Rick in the 2004 remake of Starsky & Hutch. Rock.

Carpe ientaculum

--Cereal