While Monday may not be the best night for a gig, Emmy the Great still managed to attract a healthy crowd to the Sugar Club. With a fan-base that appeared to comprise mainly of couples, I worried this was about to turn into a night of overly romantic love songs; thankfully I was wrong.
First up was new trio Whispers, with their first ever live performance. With haunting vocals, accompanied by piano, bass and effects laden guitar, the band showed promise with their first few tracks. However, as their set wore on their songs became tediously repetitive. For a debut performance they showed a lot of potential but just need to add a little variety.
Born Emma-Lee Moss, but perhaps better known as Emmy the Great, our headliner took to the stage armed with just an acoustic guitar. Opening with Eastern Maria, from latest album Virtue, Emmy’s angelic voice enthralled the audience immediately while she expertly plucked her six-string. Often over looked in a world full to the brim of pretty female singer songwriters, Miss Moss proves to the crowd she is much more than a pretty face with an acoustic guitar when she is joined by her band for Dinosaur Sex.
While having your atheist fiancé dump you to become a Christian missionary might be the worst way for a relationship to end; it does lead to fantastic material for song writing. Instead of planning a wedding, Emmy began to try to understand her fiancé’s decision by researching theology and mythology leading to inspiration for Virtue. The live performance of new material really does showcase the album; expressing a sense of loss and heartache that could never be captured on a studio recording.
Interacting with her audience, Emmy again shows she has much more to offer than her contemporaries; she is actually hilarious. While many musicians appear oblivious to their audience, she shares anecdotes with the crowd and responds to remarks from fans. She has a personality and some substance to her. Rather than just singing about how terrible men are, her songs are clever compositions full of intelligent references and imagery.
Having delighted fans with a full band for the majority of her performance, it was time for a solo encore of Desert Prom before being joined by the band again for We Almost Had a Baby and the fan requested Easter Parade. The group’s honed, tight set was given its’ final performance; truly a perfect ending for the last night of their tour.
Setlist
Eastern Maria
Dinosaur Sex
Sylvia
Creation
Exit Night
MIA
Cassandra
Paper Forest
Iris
God of Loneliness
Island in the Sun
First Love
North
Trellick Tower
*******
Desert Prom
We Almost Had A Baby
Easter Parade