Review by: Joey Kavanagh
Photos by: Abe Tarrush
I’ll confess to knowing relatively little about Lissie prior to arriving at Academy 2 for her Dublin debut. In fact, the only track of hers that I can recall is a cover of ‘Bad Romance’ that became a source of mild blogospheric hysteria a few months back.
It’s a tad ironic that a Lady Gaga song has introduced Lissie (real name Elisabeth Maurus) to a wider audience because, if anything, the singer seems to represent the antithesis of the slew of overstyled and ostentatious wannabes currently clambering to emulate Ms. Germanotta’s success. Refreshingly unassuming, she arrives on stage barefoot, sporting a modest black string top and jeans, and launches into her set with minimum fuss.
It’s not ‘Bad Romance’, but another cover version that gets proceedings underway tonight – Hank Williams’ ‘Wedding Bells’ – and the small but enthusiastic crowd waste no time in showing their appreciation, excitedly whooping from the outset.
No amount of noisiness from the more devoted fans can drown out Lissie’s almighty voice however, which I wager could fill spaces far larger than Academy 2. Working her way through the set, comprised predominantly of country-tinged ballads from her current album ‘Catching A Tiger’, she demonstrates a level of vocal dexterity that would put more established chanteuses to shame.
Lissie has the kind of voice that would probably permit her to enjoy a successful career singing other people’s songs but, thankfully, her own compositions reveal a canny songwriting ability. One particular highlight comes in the guise of ‘Oh Missisippi’, an ode to her upbringing in Rock Island, Illinois, co-written with Ed Harcourt.
Reveling in the longer set afforded to her, Lissie and her accomplished band play numbers like ‘Record Collector’ and ‘Loosen The Knot’ that normally wouldn’t make the live set list, as well as more familiar tracks like ‘In Sleep’ and ‘Cuckoo’. Visibly beaming throughout, the 27-year-old singer seems genuinely appreciative of her audience and calls out ‘Sláinte!’ as she downs a shot of tequila, to show she’s done her homework.
After briefly exiting the stage, Lissie returns to the stage for an inevitable encore. First comes an accoustic version of the first song she wrote “after moving to LA to become a singer”, before she is rejoined by her band for one final number, which she warns us is a cover version.
Thankfully, she opts for a rousing rendition of Kid Cudi and MGMT’s ‘Pursuit of Happiness’ rather than ‘Bad Romance’, which, frankly, would have seemed a little hollow after the revelations of the past hour. Gaga may have helped secure Lissie some increased exposure, but she sure as hell won’t need to rely on gimp-masks and tea cups to hold our attention.
