An assortment of
awkward, excited, boisterous fresher’s and post-pubescent faces push to the
front of the Manchester Academy Two; that
manages to partly own the persona of an old church-school hall. The highly-strung
windows and long dusty curtains are crying out for a mobile DJ and faulty smoke
machine. But that’s not what’s going on tonight. The un-cool, not-at-all
part-of the “in crowd”, kids are out. And they’re ready. It’s the final night
of Kate Nash’s UK tour before heading across the pond to complete the year with
a cluster of dates around North America. It’s definitely been a whirlwind of a
year for the 26 year old, once labeled as “mockney”, musician; dropped by her label
in March and presently both praised and criticized for cherry picking from the
“riot grrl” movement of the 90s. It’s hard to imagine anyone’s thinking about
that in this room right now. The lights black out. Lesley Gore’s “You don’t own me” fills the air,
projecting a strong, female vintage montage of Kate Nash onto the back-drop of
the stage. It’s sharply interrupted and ironically contrasted by the opening
lines of the 1965 sexploitation film, Faster
pussycat Kill! Kill! The band walks on and the crowd scream louder at each
member. Kate Nash jumps onto the stage with the energy of a hyperactive 7 year
old. Her multi-coloured, heart scattered dress shimmers through a powerful
white light to the strong solo bass line to newest album, Girl Talk’s “Sister”.
The transition between “old” and “new” kate songs seem surprisingly natural as
the grunge feel of
“Death proof” runs happily into the angst and strong guitar
led tunes of 2011s My best friend is
you’s “kiss that Grrl” and “Do Wah Doo”. The beachy feel of single
“Ohmygod” flows into the 2007 self described “classic” mouthwash, driven by
bass and guitars that really give off a true vibe of “3 chords” punk rock. An
anthem for so many in this room; with the lyrics “And this is my brain, And
even if you try and hold me back there’s nothing that you can gain.” It seems
hard to imagine that this artist was once put into the “one hit pop-wonder”
category by so many. Magic moments pop out of nowhere as the entire room lights
up and sings to acoustic favourite “Birds.” And is then rejoined by her
extremely talented backing band that shines throughout the show, especially
lead guitarist, Linda Buratto.
There always
seems to be an effortless intimacy and honesty surrounding Kate Nash, no matter
what crowd or venue she is interacting with. She makes sure she speaks directly
to the girls in the audience. The patronizing male, mid-30 year old critics may
well dismiss her as “just another role model for little girls to look up to.”
But the truth of her message feels much more than that tonight. Instead of
messy non-underwear-wearing attention seekers jumping on stage for the final
number; “Under-estimate the girl” (as witnessed
in Vancouver, May, 13), Kate’s joined by her “girl gang” a.k.a fans who have
photographic evidence of them promoting Kate’s show by sticking up posters around
various towns around the UK. We finish
with a treat. Just as everyone’s about to break out of the old church hall for
the last train, a keyboard appears on stage. A riff that everyone knows becomes
a time machine. It’s almost 2007 again. But not quite. “Merry Happy” rings out
from the vocal chords of a clever, confident and sensitive young woman that has
something to say. No nerves, no hesitation, just pride as the 600 or so fans
sing the words with her. The awkward, excited female of 2007, who’s just a
little bit boisterous, still exists. She’s just transformed. Kat Nash has always
tried to break the rules it’s just now it seems, she’s getting pretty good at
it!
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