Thursday, 28 January 2010

Laura Live

Last night we went over to the Union Chapel to see Laura Veirs, on her worldwide tour to promote the new album, July Flame

I love the Union Chapel - it's a unique space with a unique history, and an appropriate venue for such a unique talent as Laura Veirs. Given its cavernous dimensions it's sound quality is better than you'd imagine, mind you the people we met and sat with in the front row did say that you get quite a bit of echo if you're right at the back...

During the UK section of her tour, Laura has been performing with the lead singers from the Old Believers and Cataldo, and the young chap (he looked about 16!) from the Old Believers started the show. I wasn't terribly impressed with his first few country/folk inspired numbers because the tunes were quite low and he's clearly a tenor, because his voice was a bit weak - when he really got into his swing and the tune went up a few notches his voice was actually quite powerful and not unlike the saintly Jeff Buckley himself! Anyway, I don't want to be too hard on the guy because according to their Myspace page the band normally has 11 members, so being out there on his own must have been a bit difficult - he looked as nervous as hell!



Eric Anderson from Cataldo was next up, and he's clearly a very seasoned musician. The song writer and lead vocalist from his band, he treated us to a couple of very accomplished folky numbers that really got the audience's toes tapping. Again though he usually plays with a large group of other musicians, so I think I'll pick up Cataldo's recent album, Signal Flare, in order to get a proper impression of the music that he writes.



Just after 9pm a heavily pregnant Laura took to the stage, with her guitar resting gently on her six-month bump. She treated us to some old classics mixed in with a lot of material from July Flame
, which I absolutely adore, and which her baby apparently appreciates too because she told us that it kicked quite a bit through some of them! I have all of her albums, and her style just gets more refined with each one. If her voice becomes any sweeter and her lyrics more poignant on the next album I'm going to be in tears for the entire time I'm listening to it - as it is some of her numbers make me well up every time I hear them, and I'm glad I had tissues in my pocket on the night!