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Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics, review

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC – Jan 9, 2008 (Bao Nguyen)
Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

UK singer-songwriter Kate Nash played to a packed, industry-heavy room at Bowery Ballroom in NYC last night (Wed Jan 9, 2008) It was my first time seeing her – I missed Joe’s Pub, Luna Lounge, and the Virgin Megastore shows. And I loved every second it….until the encore.

Kate seemed comfortable on stage – even in front of the tough NYC crowd. Her keyboard playing, singing, lyrics, backing band, and stage presence were all good. Her guitar playing wasn’t bad either. If I left before the encore, I would have left raving about how much I loved it start to finish. I would have agreed with you that there’s already a Regina Spektor and Lily Allen, but I would have just said that I’m happy to have all three of them (actually, I’ll still say that).

But then came the first song of the two-song encore. It was a slow song, and she sang it solo – just her, her keyboard, and her microphone. It wasn’t just that the song was kind of boring – it was that, at one point, she suddenly transformed into Regina Spektor in a fake-quirky-I-studied-live-Regina-Spektor-tapes kind of way. It turned me slightly against her at that moment. By the time her band came back on stage for the very final song (a high-energy one), I was turned off. I may have liked it more if they played it ealier in the show when the other high energy songs were making it hard to stand still. That said, I forgive her for what was a mostly-great show, and hopefully she (only 20 years old) eventually develops more of her own quirks.

I’ll be surprised if Kate doesn’t get more famous in the USA than Lily and Regina combined. Then again, I guess I won’t be surprised if she doesn’t. She definitely has the show to back up the songs though, and I hope to catch her at least one more time next time she visits.

More photos by Bao, and the setlist and stuff, below…

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Kate Nash @ Bowery Ballroom

Setlist from memory, correct me if I’m wrong:

Mariella
Shit Song
Stitching Leggings
Skeleton Song
Birds
Nicest Thing
We Get On
Dickhead
Mouthwash
Foundations
Merry Happy
Encore: Little Red
Pumpkin Soup

This show was part of a few U.S. dates she played to support her new album that came out this week. She played the Virgin Megastore the day before. Get some MP3s.