大象传媒

Since parting ways with Damien Rice in 2007 Lisa Hannigan has firmly established herself as an artist in her own right. With a fine debut LP in 'Sea Sew' and a host of accolades to go with it, including Mercury Music Prize and Choice Music Award nominations, she arrives in Derry to play to a capacity crowd at the Nerve Centre.

As she comes out on stage it's hard not to notice that the woman is simply beautiful and it looks like she pulls this off with effortless ease. Her band also deserve their dues as they are all impecably dressed and thank us for coming tonight.

'Keep It All' is driven by the double bass and Hannigan's delectable warble. With many vocal stylings she sounds pitch perfect throughout tonight's set. 'Ocean and 听A Rock' is gloriously twee, full of hooks and childlike lyrics, it's a track impossible not to warm too. We are only a few tracks in and, although Hannigan and her band are on fine form, there is a worrying pattern emerging - constant talking in the crowd.

People don't seem to understand that music this fine and delicate requires a degree of silence, if the music was driven by electric guitars and drums then I could perhaps overlook it, but in this instance the music is led by glokenspeils, accordians and mandolins.

We are treated to a few new songs, the standout being 'Passenger' a song she plays solo on the Mandolin which she informs us is about being alone. This one is a real delight, it would take someone with a heart of stone not to let this warm their hearts. It also happens to be the only time the whole crowd quietly observes the artist during the gig. 听

'I Don't Know' is a crowd favourite and gets the biggest reaction of the night and it even gets the crowd in the mood to do a spot of dancing. 'Lille' is another track which unfortunatley falls victim to the constant chattering of a lot of punters tonight.

Hannigan treats us to a selection of covers throughout the night, Bert Jansch's 'Courting Blues' is reimagined into something more eerie than the original.

She plays a heart meltingly good version of John Martyn's 'Couldn't Love You More' minus the band and you can't help but become transfixed by her. Classic showtune 'Lady Is A Tramp' is also given a makeover and is turned into something wistful by Hannigan and her band of merry men. 听

They have a knack for making these tunes their own and they bring the show to a breathtaking finale with a cover of Depeche Mode's 'Personal Jesus'. Hannigan with a violin like instrument makes a monotone noise throughout and piano accompaniment give the song a lo fi makeover to start with, by the end each memeber of the band is making a delightful racket onstage to bring the show to a climax.

A solid gig, with no faults to level at Hannigan or her band, though some silence from the crowd would have went a long way in making this gig truely special.

Paul Mullin