Live Review

Lipstick and Guitar Tour – Ginglick, Shepherd’s Bush

• 29th May 2009

As the name not-so-subtly suggests, the Lipstick and Guitar tour is all about the ladies. Tonight at Ginglik, Shepherds Bush’s most tastefully-lit public toilet conversion, we’re treated to an eclectic foursome of female-led acts.

Kat Flint does well to open proceedings, a folky guitar-and-voice merchant, very capable at both and backed by a rag-tag trio of multi-instrumentalists. Flint wins admirers tonight with her achingly intimate songs, strong voice soaring through a string of climatic choruses. Dirty Birds, her debut album, sounds worth a listen judging by the tracks she treats us to tonight.

Gabby Young and Other Animals are altogether more out there, the eponymous frontwoman being something to behold; an art-school dervish of jazzy excitement. Accompanied by a little brass section, she wails her way through angular romps like “Snakebite”, and broods on more sombre affairs like upcoming single “We’re all in this together”. Their sound won’t be pinned down, but different and exciting feel like the appropriate adjectives.

Lana’s a jocular hostess throughout her set with engaging crowd banter, she wins the audience over, initiating some competitive singalong and attempting (and eventually, sort of, succeeding) to inspire a little dance-off on the floor. Her sound as well as her look is retro, the songs lovesick and bluesy with vintage pop hooks.

Headliner Nell Bryden has found her stock rising considerably off the back of her live recordings in Iraq. Hailing from New York City, she brings some exceptionally-crafted contemporary country music to the table and does it very well, belting out numbers from new album Second Time Around, her voice is really too big for the confines of a West London basement and songs like “It’s not like loving you” raise goosebumps all round in the intimate surroundings. Accordingly, a varied evening of good music is brought to end on a roof-raising high.