Could I be more in love with a musician than I am with Natasha Khan? Bat for Lashes albums encompass everything you love about music and more. More colour than you can shake a rainbow stick at. Or something. More heart than Cupids arrows. She is basically some sort of Egyptian/English princess.
I was fortunate enough to witness them support Radiohead last year in Manchester and even in a cricket stadium Natasha’s voice hit us for 6. In fact, Brian Lara himself couldn’t score like her. I was bowled over… Okay, enough cricket/I’m in love with Natasha puns.
This is my first o2 Academy visit, which is quite ridiculous considering it has been open for nearly a year. It is as big as Manchester Apollos standing floor. Finally Leeds have a better venue than the Universities. The stage setup was typically cluttered with various instruments and some strange television shaped lighting setups dotted around. Unfortunately I missed Yeasayer, but the best will shortly be arriving.
There is no way she can disappoint. Natasha throws every ounce of her being into her performance. Dressed in an extravagant black dress she effortlessly wails and whispers through ‘Glass’. ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ and ‘The Wizard’ are greeted with aplomb. To-ing and Fro-ing between Natasha and her self proclaimed glam alter ego Pearl she dazzles the audience who round applause at every moment. Her tear junking rendition of ‘Bat’s Mouth’ has me close to weeping into my drink. I did actually weep, I won’t hide it. Big wup!
Balladeering through her fantastic repertoire, including ‘Sleep Alone’, and one of my personal favourites and sure fire cross over super hit ‘Daniel’, I am convinced she is from another planet, her voice arching and enveloping every particle in attendance. You will feel everything she feels, so good is her way of communicating her songs. With numerous people shouting “I Love You” at every conceivable moment, she responds unassumingly, whispering quietly with embarrassment “Thank You”. There is no pretence with this girl.
Her backing band are fully with her in on this journey through her alternative world. The crowd are rapturous when the band lash out ‘Precilla’ and the fantastic ‘Trophy’ (incidentally the album version features another hero of mine and musical soul man Josh T Pearson). The extravagance and colourful spectrum of Bat For Lashes makes Natasha Khan one of the most important musicians to come around in recent years.
Live they glamour and awe us, we now belong to her.
Photos by Valerio Berdini taken at the Cambridge Corn Exchange date.
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Saw them in Brighton three weeks ago (as well as Primavera and Glastonbury too) – absolutely stunning… Love the heavier, ‘synthier’ (whatever) sound, especially on Sleep Alone, and that drummer is spectacular.
Not quite so sold on the windblown theatrics, perhaps – it veered too close to parody at points – but the set was just staggering.
We also missed Yeasayer. Indeed, we failed to speak to anyone who had actually made it in time – were they just myth?
I caught them in Cambridge and it was a great gig, stunning voice and brilliant band.
You should be gutted at missing Yeasayer though as they were top notch! I was compelled to get the album afterwards and it’s awesome with a new one to follow soon! Well worth checking out.
Perhaps they are a mythical creature – Yeasayer, who talk of mighty support slots that never will be seen, forever playing to imaginary crowds. Perhaps we are doomed as the late comers who miss something special every time – curses!
Yes I hear Yeasayer are like some sort of modern Fleetwood Mac or something, I will be looking them up as I haven’t yet.
Bat For Lashes are in every way beautiful! I quite like the flamboyance and colours, makes all the more special!
Yeasayer were something else (at the Bristol date anyway) – they only played two old songs, and the new ones sound astounding. Sorry for highjacking your site Rich, but we have a little interview with them here where they talk about their new video! http://epigrammusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/weve-exorcised-demons-from-last-time.html
Bat For Lashes was so good too – I don’t know what you mean about theatrics, the Bristol show was all pretty straight, and all the better for it. The stage was a lot less cluttered than the last time I saw her in April, the only acoutrement seemed to be a TV screen with Pearl’s face singing on it, which was pretty awesome. But to the girls behind us that talked all the way through, in case they’re reading this (they probably can’t read), you’re still cunts!
Brighton too was despoiled by imbeciles who seem to think they’re watching the fucking gig on a TV set – four times we had to move to try to flee them, each to no avail.
And camera phones. Dickheads who watch the stage through a phone screen (one guy at a Bloc Party gig watched the band through a phone pointed at the video screens). Is it a cunning postmodern comment about the replicated nature of contemporary culture? No, they’re just pricks who can’t breathe conventional air – only the waves of radiation from a Nokia headset will sustain them.
Now, I’m fundamentally opposed to the notion of a VIP area, but how about the opposite: some sort of fenced-off paddock where the cameraphone-wielding and endlessly-baying herd can graze to their content whilst the rest of us actually watch the people we’ve paid to see…