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Bat For Lashes certainly know how to set a mood. If the wolf howling in front of a full moon draped behind them on the 9:30 Club stage Saturday night didn't give away their intentions to create a mystical night, the glitter, lights and feathers adorning the stage (and lead singer Natasha Khan) pushed the point home. And that was before Khan even opened her mouth. Her ethereal, chilling voice rung clear through the venue for opener "Glass," instantly ending chatter and leaving the audience wide-eyed.
Khan was clearly the main attraction. Regardless of whether she was sitting at a piano or dancing across the stage, the instrumentation seemed secondary to the Khan's vocals. The near operatic soprano had echoes of all the great female vocalists that preceded her: the chill of PJ Harvey, the range of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, the natural aesthetic of Björk. With Khan at the helm, for the first 30 minutes of the show, Bat for Lashes succeeded in overwhelming the audience with a beautiful, haunting sound.
At that point, Khan and company brought out "What's a Girl to Do?" The tempo increased and Khan danced about the stage with a seemingly out of place smile as she sang the hit off of 2006's Fur and Gold. That added dimension of character showcased Bat for Lashes at their most powerful, simultaneously beautiful and dangerous. So when the band ended its set a mere one song later, the crowd went bananas, as if the momentum shouldn't have stopped after a paltry 45 minutes.
But that's exactly what happened. When Khan came back on all by her lonesome to perform heartbreaker "Prescilla" on an autoharp, the spell was slightly broken. Khan has an engaging presence, but once the audience had seen just how thoroughly impressive she could be, the three slow burners that preceded "Two Planets" and the new wave-y "Daniel" seemed less potent.
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My buddy reviewed this on his blog, and I was impressed that he did so successfully without referencing Bjork.
I thought she put on an entertaining show, although I tend to be suspicious of the musicianship of the band members when so many of the songs employ drone harmonies and repetitive 3-note riffs.
Dug the wolf.
I wonder if I could put a link about the music blog that fisher speaks of above without dcist taking it down. well I guess we will see. Concert reviews without boring references to who they might sound like and much more at http://flockalone.blogspot.com/
sounded like tori amos to me. that wolf was awesome. i hope they re-use it when the Cult comes. estrogen level was just a leeetle too high
Yeah, the event could have been sponsored by Subaru.