Her band George was still two years away from a #1 album and string of top 40 hits, but it was standing room only on the sticky carpet of The Cellar on that night in 2000, largely sparked by triple j airplay and the growing buzz around their single Spawn.

People walked away from the gig utterly mesmerised by what they had seen and heard. Noonan’s operatic vocals soared across the band’s jazzy rock arrangements, and her brother Tyrone was no slouch on the mic either, drawing comparisons to Jeff Buckley. Minds were blown.

When George returned the following year, they played upstairs in the Cri’s main bar. Noonan remembered the gig but in particular she recalled a run in with the sound engineer.

“We weren’t into having the drums up on a riser, so we got rid of it, and the sound engineer said, ‘that’s not how the AC/DC tribute band do it!’ – that was his benchmark,” she laughed.

But George, who called it a day in late 2004, is just one tiny part of Noonan’s musical tapestry.

“I went to my 20-year school reunion and I realised that Transmutant was my 17th studio album,” she said.

“I’ve been very lucky to be able to follow my muse. I don’t understand limiting yourself to one style. There’s so much to learn. 

“I’m open to anything. Except death metal probably – I probably wouldn’t do that. And I don’t like really crap dance music. I love good dance music – I was a guest on the Flight Facilities record, which was good.”

Something she hasn’t done before is play the Port Fairy Folk Festival, a situation that will be rectified this weekend.

“I’ve wanted to go for years,” Noonan said.

"They’ve asked me a few times but it hasn’t quite worked out. 

“I’ve done the Port Fairy Spring Music Festival – that was about four or five years ago. That was beautiful, I loved that.” 

The outfit she will bring to Port Fairy will be Katie Noonan’s Vanguard, which comprises Stu Hunter, Declan Kelly and Peter Koopman. They released Transmutant last year.

Noonan said the line-up fulfilled a specific musical need for her.  

“I just realised how much I miss playing a band, how much I miss distorted guitars, and energetic songs with electric guitars and keyboards,” she said.

“I’ve been making quiet albums for the last few years. I miss rocking out a bit and power of a full band in full flight.”

After the Folkie, Noonan will be teaming with British string ensemble Brodsky Quartet for an album and tour featuring the words of Australian poet Judith Wright set to music by 10 different composers (including David Hirschfelder and Paul Grabowsky).

“Ever since I first heard the Brodsky Quartet with Elvis Costello on the seminal album ‘The Juliet Letters’ and then not too soon after with one of my musical idols Bjork, it has been a dream of mine to sing with this incredible string ensemble,” she said in a recent press release.

Noonan told The Standard she liked continually “re-launching myself and getting out of my comfort zone”.

“I like doing hard stuff,” she said. 

The ever-busy singer also has an album on the go with her long-running jazz trio Elixir that’s also a songwriting collaboration with cartoonist Michael Leunig. 

"We’ve written eight songs,” she said.

“We’re probably two-thirds of the way there. But it’s on the backburner because we’re all been busy doing other things.”

Then there’s another team-up with classical guitarist Karin Schaupp, who paired with Noonan on the mini-album Songs From The British Isles and the Aussie/Kiwi follow-up Songs Of The Southern Skies.

“At this stage it will be music of South America, maybe looking at the music of Spain, Portugal, Brazil… they have such an amazing history of incredible guitar music,” Noonan said.

“I’ll try to sing in Portuguese, which is a notoriously difficult language to sing.”

Not that singing in different languages is new to Noonan, who recently collaborated with the Sydney Dance Company for Les Illuminations, which used French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s words and Benjamin Britten’s music.

“To sing in French is very tricky,” she said. 

“It’s very different to speaking it.” 

Over her career, Noonan has also released solo albums, an album with her mother, a collection of Beatles covers, and appeared in a range of musical guises, but she said the conversation often returns to George.

“I feel like we made two great records I’m really proud of,” she said, adding she had no problems talking about her old band.

“It was an epic 10 years but we’ve moved on in a lot of ways.

“It was really important for my brother and I to just be brother and sister again. It’s hard to be in a band with a brother or sister, with every man and his dog giving opinions and comparing you. It’s one of the main reasons why we stopped.”

She said a reunion is not out of the question.

“It’s the 20^th anniversary this year – if it was going to happen it will happen with year.

“There have been vague talks for a tour later this year. If it doesn’t happen, ok, if it does, great. If it’s meant to be it will happen. If not…. But never say never.”