The atmosphere is hushed and reverent in this intimate studio offshoot of The Roundhouse this evening, as you imagine it would be given the show sold out within eight hours upon announcement just shy of a month ago. Joan As Police Woman (for that is Joan Wasser, Rainy Orteca and Parker Kindred newly installed on drums) seem relaxed, Wasser herself resplendent in a silk-white dress (“for spring”) and dark, sequinned headdress, milky-skinned and striking behind her stand-up piano.
Kicking things off with carefree lead single ‘To Be Loved’ from the forthcoming preposition-happy second album To Survive is a brave though worthwhile gambit. The song – as with many from the band’s oeuvre – reveals more of itself over repeat listens; given it’s the sole tune streaming from said album it’s fairly safe to assume it’s graced the ears of most attendees more than once, such is its addictive nature. It’s not a vast departure from anything on Real Life – breezier in tone perhaps, though not entirely indicative of proceedings in this respect.
The band roll through a fluid ‘Flushed Chest’ before focusing primarily on new material. Wasser herself is charming: loquacious in an endearingly nervous manner, introducing the medium-paced first track from the new album as “a song to play to your new boyfriend or girlfriend before things get serious”. The song is entitled ‘Honour My Wishes’, and finds her plaintively asking an unnamed partner whether they would do so, for her. Following some playful banter with the somewhat androgynous Orteca, Wasser offers the crowd a solo rendition of the superlative companion piece to the forthcoming single, ‘To Be Lonely’. Featuring a long introduction at once nimble and stately before painstakingly well-enunciated lyrics (Wasser’s impassioned delivery – as Chan Marshall’s – is fascinating to watch), it’s a twinkling, mournful number very well received indeed.
Less stately (and seeing Wasser move from piano to warm-toned guitar) are a selection of tunes including live favourite of a couple of years now, ‘Hard White Wall’ – a song tactfully described on this occasion as “about lust…and hard white walls”. Wasser sheds the hat and returns to the piano for ‘Furious’ – befitting of its title perhaps the most upbeat number of the evening, carried well by the trio’s impeccable rhythm section.
Entertaining us with her glee at the soon-to-be-toppled state of the US Government and fear of London’s commuters (“It’s great to be here even though it scares me”), after a strong ‘Christobel’ an encore is inevitable, the trio reciprocating with a shimmering, sensual ‘Eternal Flame’. For the final song of the evening we’re treated to a solo outing of To Survive’s title track, stripped of strings and embellishments and all the more affecting for it. Concerned with matters relating to “the storm of our wild desires”, it is serene, graceful – and as its title implies, ultimately optimistic in nature.
Wasser graciously exits the stage to keenly felt applause; she’ll be back in the summer at notably larger venues, as the cult following that has been growing ever since Real Life was released two years ago looks to potentially accelerate ever faster. And so it should – the adulation showered on her band this evening richly and wholly deserved.
Photo: MySpace
