 | | Lou Rhodes |
This is as near as she gets to a hometown gig, especially since she did a Vashti Bunyan following the demise of Lamb and her personal life, and only her third live outing, so the nerves were plain to see. Despite her years at the front of the eclectic Lamb show, she doesn’t seem to have settled to her new role of solo artist just yet. Maybe it was the venue. Seated as she was and playing a largely acoustic set, she’d have been more suited to the upstairs of the Britons Protection or a smoky Night and Day. As it was, she cut a curious figure, half the height of her surrounding band, unable to capture the audience’s imagination, despite that breathtakingly wonderful voice. Not that the crowd helped. “You’re the most attentive audience I’ve ever played to,” she mumbled halfway through, as a way of responding to the crushing silence and respectful, though hardly rapturous, response that accompanied each tune. Indeed, it wasn’t until she returned for a beautifully understated rendition of Lamb’s Gabriel that the half full venue sprang into life, and you couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her when it received an ovation at least three times louder than anything else. There’s no mistaking the sheer brilliance of Rhodes’ voice and on record, there’s much to be praised on her solo debut, Beloved One, but if she’s going to cut it live, she needs to put more life in her performance. Standing up would be a good place to start.
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