Katie Melua
Just got back from seeing Katie Melua at the Cambridge Corn Exchange. It’s not the best venue in the world for such things, seeing as how the accoustics are fairly awful and the seats are really not made for anybody vaguely human-shaped, let alone someone with as much leg as I’ve got, but nonetheless the performance was excellent and I had a fantastic time — what my bottom thinks about the whole affair is moderately irrelevant, really.
After a very mediocre support act who’s name I forgot before he even finished his first song (probably because he was mumbling), there was an interval, then the lights dimmed and the voice rang out “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Katie Melua.”
Needless to say the applause was thunderous as Katie walked on stage, selected a guitar, lit a candle and settled upon a stool for a beautiful rendition of ‘Faraway Voice’. Then the band appeared, Katie said a few words and they performed ‘Call Off The Search’ — new single released tomorrow, as she was so careful to remind us! The third song was ‘Crawling Up A Hill’ which is good on the album but better live, and she’d applied s/London/Cambridge/g to the lyrics, which must be a pain if she’s performing somewhere that doesn’t have a two-syllable name or abbreviation.
Other highlights of the evening included ‘Spider’s Web’, which she said will probably be on her second album, and is definitely one to watch out for, as is another new song the title of which I can’t remember. She also sang the B sides from ‘Closest Thing To Crazy’ which I’ve not heard before as I didn’t buy the single and they’re not on the album. They’re good though, especially the second one she did, ‘Down The Stairs To The Sun’.
‘Belfast (Penguins and Cats)’ was introduced with a short speech about why she wrote it after she moved to England from Belfast and realised the perceptions people had of it because of the Troubles… what she said about what it’s really like there and what the song’s about really made a lot of sense, and ties in very well with what I felt and saw and heard when I was over there late last year. Actually, it more or less makes me want to go back again!
‘Closest Thing To Crazy’ itself, ostensibly the last song of the set, was extremely well-received and ultimately a perfect finish to the set — apart from the two encore songs, which were absolutely fantastic, and gave the band a chance to show off outrageously. It seems just that such a talented singer is backed up by such talented musicians — including her manager and producer, who plays the piano extremely well.
So unfortunately the concert had to end, but my bottom wasn’t responding to pings anymore, so perhaps that was a good thing. It’s only on about 25% packet loss now, so hopefully I’ll have it all back by morning.
Oh, and in other news today I attended the Cambridge Pagan Conference, which was really rather good. What with the decorating of my room (photos to follow some time during the week), this has been an unusual but good weekend.