Toronto – So Kate Nash is kind of becoming a bit of a star. That’s the impression I got as I entered the fairly packed Phoenix for an early Saturday show. You could see the excitement building amongst the largely young and female crowd (and in the guy standing next to me who was excitedly dancing to the prerecorded music being piped in over the PA.) The excitement grew, manifesting itself as Kate took the stage to the sound of much cheering amd launched into “Doo-Wah-Doo,” followed by “Mouthwash,” which is pretty similar to how she started off her previous show in town at the Mod Club. One significant change from the setlist of that show is that she saved the song “Foundations” until almost the end of her set, so perhaps she read Ricky’s review and took it to heart.
Another change from that previous night’s set is that Nash moved more quickly to guitar based songs (she was on the guitar by the third song, although that may have had something to do with the fact that she was uncertain of the structural integrity of the chair she was sitting on) and switched things up a bit, moving back and forth every few songs. She definitely knows how to work a crowd, and was happy to interact with them, responding to the random things shouted by excitable fans – things like “Get her a drink!” (shouted during a call for silence before a particularly quiet song), “You’re my favourite ginger!” and various comments about her dress, belt, feet, and what she was drinking. This sort of thing makes a crowd feel like they have some sort of connection with a performer and came across pretty well, as she had some pretty funny reactions. She does clear her throat into the mic a bit too often though.
While some may feel that her piano pop numbers are stronger, I did find several of the newer guitar based numbers to be mostly pretty compelling as well. I thought she did a fairly convincing performance, bringing an almost John Lydon-esque vibe to her delivery. Do I like these songs as much as “Birds” or “Merry Happy?” No, but they’re still pretty good and this seems to be a direction she’s interested in going in. Certainly, the bulk of the crowd seemed to be pretty into it, and frankly, I’d rather see a young musician with only 2 albums under her belt branch out into various directions than get pigeonholed as one sort of thing. Speaking of branching out, Nash played what she referred to as her version of an R n’ B song, “R n B Side.” She credited her guitarist with coming up with the title and seemed pretty pleased with the wordplay. It’s pretty good, but as far as clever wordplay goes, I’d have to give the prize for the night to the guy asking for change outside after the show – “Give some cash if you love Kate Nash.”