Kate Nash
Oxford, O2 Academy 26th June 2012
Kate Nash has been around for a few years now, with debut album “Made Of Bricks” having topped the UK charts, a Brit award win and a few hit singles under her belt. With a third album due out in 2012, a couple of weeks ago saw a video released for the first track of new material. Called “Under-Estimate The Girl”, this saw a huge swing in musical style. Gone is the sickly sweet pop melodies, in is the rougher edge, distortion almost riot grrrl sound. Met with some backlash, Kate Nash set off on a 12 date tour to promote her new material.
If I’m honest, I wasn’t much of a fan of her work before. It’s quirky, it’s catchy and some of the lyrics left me wondering if there was too much desperation to rhyme at times. But, this move away from what was commercially successful to explore a rougher edge is something that kinda intrigued me enough to head to check her show out.
I’m not even going to bother wasting time talking about the support band, Shuga. They were beyond terrible. And that’s being polite!
As the lights dimmed, the varied aged crowd started to scream. Well the younger girls in the audience did, the older people propped up the bar. And there were even some kids there with parents. How would they take to the new sound?
Images flashed up on the backdrop of the classic Russ Meyer’s movie – the tour is called “Faster Pussycat Run Run” a tribute to the classic movie, “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” and her band took the stage. Now backed by an all girl group (in matching t-shirts), Kate Nash arrived on stage dressed in some strange headwear and a mutli coloured shrug. Announcing to the audience that we were going to hear a fair amount of new stuff.
The sound is not so sweet pop, but it’s heavy. The sound is distorted, the bass is too and to be honest it’s much more my kind of thing. Even with her vocals, which are able to move from the more melodic points into the angrier riot grrrl sound, with piercing screams that ooze both passion and the underlying message that you don’t want to fuck with her.
The musical progression can definitely be heard in her music. People will no doubt claim this is a case that she’s just grown up or maybe her influences have just changed. Perhaps she’s been exposed to more Babes In Toyland, Sleater Kinney, Huggy Bear, L7 and even Courtney Love to an extent. The songs have a much more raw feel to them, they’re less polished and to be honest I was very dubious about how it would work, but I was impressed.
The show itself profiled mostly new material. Tracks like “Friend?”, “Coventional Girl”, “Grrrl Gang” ( a cover of Cocaine by Fidlar, an LA based garage punk band) all highlight that maybe this is the music Kate Nash wanted to make all along. Of course there will be a backlash, artists have to expect that when they make changes. Remember when that bloke with the stupidly large eyebrows left Busted. A million pre-pubescent girls cried their eyes out. The stick he got for starting Fightstar, yet he seems to have done alright for himself. Artists need to grow musically, otherwise every album sounds the same and offers nothing new. A nasty loop to be stuck in.
With just a few of what seemed to be older songs in the set, even though the crowd kept shouting out for them. After an acoustic performance of new song “You’re so Cool, I’m So Freaky”, which apparently you could pick up lyrics sheets up for from the merch table to join in, the crowd were rewarded with the huge hit single “Foundations”. They went wild!
Then mixed in amongst the garage influenced riot grrrl tunes you had “Rap For Rejection”, yeah where she rapped, well talked, her way through a song about
Kate Nash really does enjoy interacting with the crowd, constantly talking between songs (even proclaiming she’s a massive dick!), at one point getting right in the mix of things by jumping off the stage and getting up close and personal with the front few rows. Which caused her team no end of issues on stage as they constantly had to loop her microphone lead over the stand. Why, they didn’t just move the stand off the stage? Seemingly liked she was really excited for people to hear her new material, smiling throughout and swearing all the time. She seemed to really appreciate her fans and they her.
Although many would probably have felt that the show was more a showcase for her upcoming album than a chance to hear some of your favourites from old albums, I don’t think many would have been to disappointed.
Closing the set with “Under-Estimate The Girl” proved that the transformation is almost complete from pop star to rock star. The new material did indeed hold up live.
Then rounding off the show with an acapella performance of “Lullaby For An Insomniac” proved that she does actually have a great voice. The crowd were silent, just taking in her performance.
Yes, some of the old fans may not like the change, but Kate Nash will get a whole army of new fans from her new sound. It may not lend itself to the mainstream commercially but it sounds like it’s going to be one hell of a new album.
Review by Mr. T
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