Thursday, June 28, 2007

Charlotte Hatherley - Hoxton Bar & Grill 27/06/2007

When I bought the Charlotte Hatherley album earlier this year my first thought was that it was one of the worst records I'd heard in some time. Thankfully, I have never been a first impressions are alway right person, so I gave it more time and found that it was in fact a pretty decent record. I must however confess to thinking that her voice is rather weak and weedy, a fact that didn't fill me with great expectations when the opportunity to see her perform an acoustic set live presented itself (as it turned out Hatherley was also accompanied on electric guitar by 'charly').

How wrong could I be. Playing a set that cherry picked the best tracks off the current album ( I want you to know, Behave, Be Thankful, Wounded Sky, Siberia, as well as throwing in old favourite Basardo and a few well choosen covers: Simon Dupree and the Big Sounds’- Kite, a Wire song that I recognised and have shamefully forgotten the title of ; and Kim Wilde’s - Kids in America, this was surprisingly good. The voice actually holds up well live and the song choices didn't leave time to get bored in the 55 minute set. Good stuff.

The support act we're a nice discovery too - Godwits. They are a 5 piece normally, but we got two band members (guitar and violin) for this acoustic night. I really liked their sound, and the song Fires has been in my head today. A band to watch.

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