Live Review

Laura Veirs – Union Chapel

• 2nd Mar 2011

It was fitting, Laura Veirs starting her set with “Carol Kaye”, a song about wanting to be like the talented session musician who has supplied us with many great bass lines but stays happily, unfamously in the background. Not everyone seeks stardom. And perhaps Veirs is indeed like Carol Kaye, because the limelight doesn’t seem to be a place she’s comfortable in.

She was the antithesis of the glamorous rock star, wee Laura, wombling unimposingly on stage at London’s Union Chapel, with her hair in childish pigtails, peering out at the crowd through thick-lensed glasses. Her demeanor was rather awkward and her between-song banter cringingly strange, either breathlessly saying far, far too much or pausing painfully too long.

Her audience was an interesting departure from the usual checked-shirt brigade too. Not a pair of skinny jeans in sight. Looking down the pew, you had to remind yourself that no, you really aren’t in church, and no, that’s not your Uncle Horace and Aunt Gladys sitting there among the Guardian readers.

I’ve always found it appealing though, the odd and open down-to-earthness that comes with Veirs’ songs. The little imperfections of her music – the cracked and straining vocals, the irregular rhythm of the lyrics, the less-then-styley arrangements – are all endearingly forgivable due to their honesty and lack of pretension. I’ve always imagined a kind of teenage defiance when hearing lyrics like “Above the tattered flags and the rotten show posters” crammed into a single, clunky line. It makes me smile.

She was just the same live, belting out her perky tunes in her forthright, unapologetically flawed voice and pootling away on her guitar, delivering a set that consisted mainly of songs from her latest two albums. But it didn’t make me smile. Somehow it felt a bit flat. Veirs’ performance wasn’t terribly compelling – she lacks a performer’s magnetism – meaning her cute foibles suddenly made her seem a little inept.

Perhaps it was that the stunning venue just contrasted too much with the music. I kept looking up at the Chapel’s beautiful vaulted ceiling, waiting for the songs to carry me to its soaring heights. But of course they didn’t. How could they, being so very grounded? I wanted magical and I got prosaic. And you know a gig’s not going well when your attention keeps drifting to the architecture.

“I Can See Your Tracks”, with its dramatic harmonies, came close to being uplifting. And an electronic backing track kicked in for “July Flame” (drums, wheee) towards the end of the night, which woke us all up a bit but made it all too clear what had been lacking in the rest of the set. A little aside for “an old number”, a kind of southern folk song sung acapella, was interesting too. Generally, though, it was all a bit ordinary.

Veirs seems like a nice lady, and it was a pleasant enough evening. But it all felt too much like we’d traipsed down to the village hall to watch some amateur dramatics. We needed to see at least a hint of stardom really, something slightly more ethereal (especially in a chapel). Because otherwise it just isn’t terribly inspiring.