Austra – Cargo, London 7/7/11

All hail high priestess of the new breed of goth pop! Austra’s Katie Stelmanis takes to the stage at Cargo tonight and casts a spell over the entire audience.

She stands front and centre, flanked by the sparkly-eyed sisters from Tasseomany, who add vocal and ritual to Austra’s live line-up. Stelmanis is appropriately kohl’d up and draped in tie-dye with every song accompanied by hand gestures that made her look like a spell-caster.

The set opens with a somewhat shakey ‘Darken Her Horse’ causing some personal worry that Austra’s brand of dark, synth-driven pop won’t translate into a live performance. Any uncertainty soon disappears, with the high notes hit and no more hints of shyness. The girl has certainly got a pair of lungs on her and this no more apparent than during Austra’s two best known songs,’Lose It’ and ‘The Beat and the Pulse’. The former is a perfect opportunity for Stelmanis to showcase the more fragile aspects of her voice, and the latter gives her ample chance to belt out the louder notes.

My only complaint is that that Cargo’s atmosphere isn’t quite suited to the brooding feeling of Austra’s music – a larger and darker venue would be more appropriate. Throughout the nights, Stelmanis repeatedly asks for more volume on synths and vocal and I’m never sure if she ever got it.