Venue:
Bush Hall, London
Date: 08/09/2015
This was like falling asleep and waking up inside her wonderful 2015 album “On Your Own Love Again”. With a broad sweep of red velvet curtain as a backdrop, there was a Lynchian dreamlike quality to the set-up which suited Jessica’s uniquely mannered vocal and guitar-picking style to a tee.
Entrancing is perhaps the word most often used to describe her music. Indeed, the spell woven by her songs in this live framework proved even more hypnotic than the studio recording. Opening the evening with the haunting “Wrong Hand”, Miss Pratt never hurried her performance. The softly swirling “Moon Dude” had an even slower lilt than on the album.
“Strange Melody”, “Back, Baby” [which included an impromptu audience rendition of the opening line, “Sometimes I pray for the rain”] and “I’ve Got a Feeling” combined to bring the regular set to a marginally more uptempo close before “Titles Under Pressure”, from her debut album, and a new number [I think], “Fortuna”, formed an understated encore.
Jessica was charmingly tangible throughout, asking the desk if they could fix her reverb glitch and telling her audience she felt a little ill, offering her sweaty top lip as evidence. You wouldn’t have known it from the quality of her pitch-perfect performance. And she even stood in the bar afterwards to chat with fans.
[Photo credit: shindig-magazine.com]
The audience:
Mostly 20-45. A few oldies, such as myself, reliving California 1968.
It made me think..
Beautiful old music hall venue, delightfully genuine performer.
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