Kate Nash Battles Through Power Cut at Intimate London Show

Posted on Mar 13th 2010 10:00AM by David Renshaw
Comments

Kate Nash rounded off her intimate tour of tiny venues across the UK on Thursday night (March 11), playing a set marred by technical difficulties.

Despite having not played live for almost two years Nash took to the Bethnal Green Working Man's Club in a confident mood, urging the crowd to "act as if it's a Friday night, dance, sing, whatever."

That all changed half way through however when a power cut plunged the venue into darkness and forced Nash to play acoustically. Technicians fiddled with fuse boxes as Nash created a campfire atmosphere as playing old songs including, 'Birds,' 'Pumpkin Soup' and 'Foundations.'

Earlier in the evening, Nash had said that she wouldn't be performing her most famous song any longer. Much of the set focused instead on new material from her forthcoming second album 'My Best Friend Is You.'

Album producer Bernard Butler looked on as Nash debuted a mix of familiar sounding, piano-based pop songs like 'Kiss That Grrrl' and new single 'Do Waa Doo.'

With power eventually restored Nash and her full band showed the edgier side of their new material including the post-punk spoken-word track 'Mansion Song' and the rapid-fire, lyrical tongue-twister 'I Hate Seagulls.'

Fans of the bands Nash is seeking to emulate (the Slits, John Cooper Clarke) may justifiably turn their noses up at this volte-face. The set ended at its most dangerous, on the feedback heavy 'I Just Love You More.' On an evening where the biggest disaster could have been a lot worse, Nash will be thankful all that went wrong was the electrics.