Live Review

Imogen Heap –

• 22nd Feb 2010

You come away from an Imogen Heap gig feeling like you’ve spent the evening with a friend. She rushed out onto the stage at Shepherds Bush Empire nervously apologising for her lateness due to having a sore throat, speaking as though she was late for a coffee date. Instantly forgiving her, you settle in for a night of haunting and beautiful sounds accompanied by quirky commentary. In fact, the scratchy voice she was apologising for is endearing and you feel as if you’re witnessing something special.

Imogen began the show by running her finger around the rim of a wineglass, setting the scene for her favourite song from Ellipse, Wait It Out. Throughout the entire show she surprised the crowd with unusual percussion instruments – from something resembling a birdcage, to what looks like a big white noodle which she waved around her head like a helicopter blade.

Frolicking around stage in her Dorothy-esque sparkly ballet flats, Imogen let you into her world and imagination, so you came away not just feeling like you’ve listened to great music, but connected to her now that you know the story behind the tracks. The sounds you’ve listened to on the album – sounds of birds, frying pans, fire – you realise that they are all sampled from the parks around her house, or a bonfire night with her family, giving the whole night a personal feel.

One of the highlights was a stripped back version of Bad Body Double, with her breaking out into her funky rap across the stage, the audience exploding into laughter as her ‘bad body double’ (a member of her crew in a wig and ‘Bad Body Double’ T-shirt) comes out onto the stage.

Imogen further impressed the crowd with not just her musical talent, but her charitable intentions, as she improvised a track on the spot. She took the tempo, speed and key from the audience and then recorded an improvised track live on stage, to be available on her website, proceeds going to her charity chosen for the evening. You couldn’t help but be impressed as she ran between the harmoniser and the piano, doing her own back-up vocals and incorporating unusual sounds into the mix.

The final part of the show is hurried, yet still enjoyable, as she realised out aloud ‘it’s 51 minutes past?! Ten minutes to go?!’ and there is no time for a proper tension-building encore as she just gets on with the music. And thank goodness we didn’t miss out on that – true to the precedent already set of high audience participation, she teaches the crowd the harmonies to her songs and we all sing along to crowd favourites Hide and Seek, Just for Now and The Moment I said It. Briefly, we get to be a part of the show and the magic she creates.
As she sings in Between Sheets – it just doesn’t get better than this.