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I didn't really know much about the The Waifs before this live concert at the Canberra Theatre. I'd heard a few songs here and there on the radio and an album or two in the background while eating dinner. How to categorise them? They're essentially a folk band, with blues and country tinges. I liked what I'd heard previously, but wasn't sure what to expect of them live.

The Waifs are:

• Donna Simpson - vocals, guitar;
• Vikki Simpson - vocals, harmonica, guitar; and
• Josh Cunningham - guitar, vocals.

Most of the vocals were shared between the Simpson sisters, who definitely attract most of the attention, with Cunningham performing solid lead vocals on about 3 songs. The band was completed by a bass player and drummer.

Since I'm not familiar enough with the material I can't comment on individual songs, but I can say that they performed their most popular tunes.

Now to rave about the extraordinary talent of the Simpson sisters...

They're both excellent lead vocalists - Donna has a solid voice, while Vikki's seems more dynamic. They have strong Australian accents, which sometimes bothers me with singers, but here it is a feature. As is sometimes the case with siblings, Donna and Vikki accompany each other with flawless, effortless harmonies. In particular, Vikki tends to just stand somewhere near the microphone and let loose with backing vocals that are sometimes so good they hurt. She's also an excellent harmonica player - sometimes playing with a dedicated microphone, and other times standing somewhere near her vocal microphone. Donna's backing vocals are more traditional, although sometimes you can hear her when she's standing a couple of metres back from the microphone just singing along.

The weather had been quite cold and during one song Vikki's voice gave up. Donna stepped in and took over the vocals for a verse or two until Vikki had recovered. During a later song, Vikki played the introductory guitar and started singing, apparently in a key that wasn't obvious to the rest of the band - she'd accidently left her capo on. The rest of the band worked it out quite quickly and came in on cue. Later still, while Josh played the opening guitar for another song and Vikki began singing, holding her guitar ready to join in later, Donna noticed the capo was still on. After a word to Josh she walked over, removed the capo and clipped it to the head of Vikki's guitar and walked back to her microphone. It took a few seconds for Vikki to realise that someone had been near her and something strange had happened - she'd been singing. Although Vikki may have been a bit out of sorts on the night (although I'm not sure, since this was my first Waifs experience), this was one of those things that ended up being a feature instead of a problem. The audience got a sense of the fun and enjoyment these people get from playing music, and the closeness between the members of the band.

All in all, a fun and relaxing experience of a very talented band. It may well be time for a Waifs album binge...