Tonight I saw Neko Case live at Bush Hall, it was a sold out show for the firey haired country singer songwritter and showcased loads of new tracks from her latest album Middle Cyclone. It was nice and relaxing gig despite being hot and sweaty.
I arrived around 7.30pm at the venue, surprised that a lot of people were already in the venue and there was a queue forming (sold out and whatnot). I met up with Anika and we both went in to see if we could ninja ourselves to the front. Anika had to queue up for her box office ticket whilst I waltzed in with a ticket (though i obviously paid for me, but hey, i get a ticket stub in the end) and immediately found the best spot I could (wasn’t the best). Man it was already crowded, quite impressed so far.
Anika joined in later on and managed to sneakily ninja herself to the front of the stage, that triggered an alarm for folks near the front and some tension was involved, it wasn’t that bad but I kinda like dramatising it to make things a bit more interesting (well mildy more interesting). It felt like Bush Hall wasn’t Anika’s best friend, what with the infamous death stare she got from Frida. The audience was quite a mature group, though Anika was surprised that there wasn’t many piping young hot indie youths hehe.
The support act was Eric Bachmann (strangely i had the name Matt Parkman in my head when he was introducing himself, maybe i need to check the latest episode of heroes, mmm banter). He played classical guitar as well as conventional electric and had a really nice soothing voice. He was charming on stage and bantered with us as well as thanking for us for being such a nice pleasant bunch of listeners. Listening to him play made me want to buy a classical guitar and just strum along peacefully by a riverstream (if they exist in London) and just watch the sunset. mmm tasty.
Next up were Neko Case! They were delightfully splendid throughout the show, Neko constantly giggled and bantered away with her backing singer who had an epic purse that stored all sorts of bits of miscellaneous accessories including self adhesive tape (can’t use sellotape because that’s a brand baby), mints, a fan and other bits and bobs that fit in that category. They joked about how she practically has everything in that bag. They played tracks from the new album including People got a lot to love, Middle Cyclone, Prison Girls ,Don’t Forget Me and my favourite track, This Tornado Loves. Here’s a video of it in action.
They used a crazy amount of stringed instruments including a banjo, electric banjo, loads of 12 stringed guitars, a slide guitar, acoustic guitar, semi electrics and a big ass double bass, I was surprised they didn’t have a uekele in all of that hehe (I’m very sure it was in the purse though). The music was toe tapping and finger snapping. I really enjoyed the show and loved the 4 song encore, they played a total of 20 songs (compared to ones where they only play 14 songs) which was quite epic. We left the venue and Anika began feeling hungry from lack of food bless, we parted ways at some station and that was about it. Tasty show! Check them out and when they tour next time and buy their new album when it’s out (on 3rd of March)!
adults only?