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Laura Marling | Live Review

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Laura Marling embarks on a whistle-stop tour of churches up and down the country...

St James' Church, Piccadilly - 11.06.08

Having not stepped inside a church for over three years now, (sorry mum) I looked upon this trip as a cathartic exercise and killing two birds with one old stone.

Laura Marling embarks on a whistle-stop tour of churches up and down the country. St James’, Piccadilly plays host to Laura Marling tonight.

There’s not a spare pew in the house and I’m not prepared to join the sandal-wearing-brigade, cross legged on the marble floor. So we are forced to congregate peevishly close to the collection boxes.

Marling opens with a couple of solo numbers. Plucking with precision and sending her voice to the top of the steeple and beyond.

She owns a most beautiful voice, its infallible tonight. You don’t expect infallibility from a particularly vulnerable looking teenager, who wouldn’t look out of place in a Thursday night Confirmation Class. Although, she sure would sound out of place! This only adds to the beauty and intrigue of Marling.

She is joined by the rest of her merry band to supplement her folk punctuated rhythms. With more instruments onstage than an Arcade Fire car boot sale, you would be quite wrong to think it would complicate her folk sound. The subtle intricacies serve to separate Marling from the crowd, and this is why she has moved on from her musical influences. Not upwards, but perhaps sideways and diagonally.

Her lyrics are incredibly descriptive. ‘Night Terror’, transports you to Shepherds Bush Green with a light head and sends you back home on the night bus in an over-sized grey hoodie. When you’re finished wallowing in self pity, ‘Alas I Can Swim’, whisks you away to Summer holiday’s spent by the beach circa 15-years-old.

She finishes her eye opening performance with, ‘Alas I Can’t Swim’, incorporated with the mandatory hoedown finale. This was to be their encore. Is it still an encore if the band doesn’t vacate the stage before coming back on? I didn’t think so either.

I was pleasantly pleased that New Romantic was omitted from her set-list. In much the same way that ‘the dance’ is cut out of The Office.

Written by Emmet Mannion