Folk Bitch Trio at Scala: When Live Sounds Just Like the Record
The Australian trio brought their 2025 debut album ‘Now Would Be A Good Time’ to London.
Photo: Press
In an episode of The Track Star Podcast, hosted by Jack Coyne, bassist Christian McBride reflects on how great bandleaders like Duke Ellington understood the relationship between recording and performance. The best musicians, he argues, knew how to recreate the clarity and balance of their recordings on stage — something he believes modern live music often lacks. Now, at Scala, Folk Bitch Trio offered a compelling counterexample. From the moment they began singing, the Melbourne trio sounded uncannily like their recordings: three voices locking into tight, slightly dissonant harmonies over sparse, finger-picked acoustic guitar. Rather than flattening the live experience, that precision only sharpened the intimacy of the songs.
After an opening set from Toronto singer‑songwriter Georgia Harmer, the trio took the stage in all black, voices and acoustic guitar at the centre of the room. They opened with a pair of songs that quickly established their interlocking harmony lines and rhythmic finger-picked guitar textures, before their expanded band joined them to add depth and colour.
Through Hotel TV and The Actor, the additional instruments — subtle rhythmic accents, extra string or percussion layers — fleshed out the trio’s core sound without overwhelming it. They wove new material into the set too, slipping in two previously unheard songs that sat naturally alongside crowd favourites like Cathode Ray. Within their set, the arrangements moved between intimate trio segments and full‑band interplay, and they closed the main set with the emotionally resonant God’s a Different Sword. The brief encore opened with another new song, its harmonic richness and dynamic build leaving the room in anticipation.
By the end of the night, it was clear why Folk Bitch Trio had been earning such acclaim. The room was completely absorbed, each harmony and subtle instrumental flourish drawing listeners in without ever feeling forced. Their ability to translate the precision and intimacy of their recordings to a live setting made the performance feel both polished and immediate, a rare combination in today’s live music landscape. Watching them live, it was easy to see why their songs resonate so strongly — they balance vulnerability with compositional sophistication, making each performance feel like a quiet revelation shared directly with the audience.
With their upcoming appearance at End of the Road, it’s clear that their finely tuned live sound will reach an even wider audience, and it will be exciting to see how their intimate, precise harmonies translate to a festival stage.
