A Night of Dark Folk at Pearces Creek Hall with M.E. Baird

MUSICIAN Matt M.E. Baird will return with a full band for the first time in five years at Pearces Creek Hall, overcoming a period shaped by cancer treatment, isolation and renewed creativity.

The show on Saturday 4 July will see Baird fronting The Fold, a band formed with close collaborators from across the Northern Rivers music scene.

The lineup includes Leroy Who, Ashleigh Bo, Karl S Williams and Darren Bridge.

Baird said returning to a full-band format brings both excitement and nerves after years away from larger live performances.

While he has remained musically active through solo work and smaller shows, he said the past few years had been defined by a quieter, more reflective creative period.

A cancer diagnosis in 2020, alongside the disruption of COVID-19, forced the cancellation of touring plans. During four years of treatment and recovery, Baird focused on writing, experimentation and poetry.

“It gave me a great opportunity just to indulge in making noise, experimenting, or writing stuff that was inspiring me at the time,” he said.

“I was reading a lot of poetry, and that led to a small EP called Spinning Man. It gave me something to focus all of that into something more tangible.”

The six-track release drew inspiration from poets including Dylan Thomas and Anne Sexton, and received critical acclaim for the songwriting.

Although full-scale touring remained out of reach, Baird performed a small number of intimate local shows following the release, which he said were valuable but very different in scale and energy.

Baird began his musical career in Melbourne in the early 1990s, becoming part of the city’s post-punk, rock and dark folk scene.

He has since released five critically acclaimed solo albums, along with recordings under various band projects.

The Pearces Creek Hall performance will also mark a shift in tone, with Baird describing the show as leaning into a darker, more atmospheric form of folk influenced by his early musical roots.

“It’s still in the folk genre, but much darker and a little more gothic,” he said.

“We’re doing an evening show and the whole space is being transformed. We’re really making a night of it.”

Tickets for the event can be purchased at humanitix.com/dark-folk-night-at-pearces-creek-hall