After parting ways with stadium rockers Ash in 2006, Charlotte Hatherley takes her own show to the small stage performing to an intimate room of loyal fans. "There's no fancy introductions", informed Hatherley modestly as she got on stage to perform tracks from her new album "New Worlds" at Winchester's Railway Inn on Sunday night. She didn't need any fancy introductions as the music spoke for itself.The set was short but certainly sweet, lasting less than an hour but what she lost in stage time, she made up for in performance. With a loose, floaty indie feel which lacked a conventional, definite style, she kept the audience guessing at all times. Every song was stylistically different from any other thus creating a sense of pace, and capturing and maintaining the audience's attention.
The set playlist was well crafted; spacing out more well known tracks amongst newer, lesser known ones, which is something every performing musician should do. Crowd favourites included the opening track from the album New World, "White", which was as purely perfromed as the title name suggests. A class track, with a gritty riff in the verse, which was neutralised by the breezy, psychedelic nature of the chorus.
A personal favourite of mine was the explosive "Alexander", a song about lusting after someone. This had a really edgy, punky feel to it, (evidence that Ash had not all but left her) which sat perfectly between more calm songs to keep the show moving. "Bastardo" was the last track, which summed up the performance nicely and demonstrated Charlotte is not generic singer song writer.
It certainly was different seeing her perform to eighty people as opposed to eighty thousand, but it would be fair to say that her music is all the better for the change in direction.
The set was short but certainly sweet, lasting less than an hour but what she lost in stage time, she made up for in performance. With a loose, floaty indie feel which lacked a conventional, definite style, she kept the audience guessing at all times. Every song was stylistically different from any other thus creating a sense of pace, and capturing and maintaining the audience's attention.
The set playlist was well crafted; spacing out more well known tracks amongst newer, lesser known ones, which is something every performing musician should do. Crowd favourites included the opening track from the album New World, "White", which was as purely perfromed as the title name suggests. A class track, with a gritty riff in the verse, which was neutralised by the breezy, psychedelic nature of the chorus.
A personal favourite of mine was the explosive "Alexander", a song about lusting after someone. This had a really edgy, punky feel to it, (evidence that Ash had not all but left her) which sat perfectly between more calm songs to keep the show moving. "Bastardo" was the last track, which summed up the performance nicely and demonstrated Charlotte is not generic singer song writer.
It certainly was different seeing her perform to eighty people as opposed to eighty thousand, but it would be fair to say that her music is all the better for the change in direction.
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