NADINE SHAH + CALLUM EASTER – CHALK, BRIGHTON 19.10.23 (More photos HERE)
Mercury prize nominee Nadine Shah returned after a break from live performances for an intimate show at Chalk in Brighton on Thursday, organised by local promoters JOY. Announced with only a week’s notice, it quickly sold out. The show coincided with Nadine announcing new music. Her fifth album ‘Filthy Underneath’ drops in February 2024, while her new single ‘Topless Mother’ was released the day before her Brighton show.
There was a real buzz around Chalk in anticipation for Nadine Shah’s performance. At 8:45pm the house lights went down and the stage was lit in red, with flashing white lights. Nadine’s band, consisting of two guitarists, one of whom also played keyboard, a bassist and a drummer, took the stage first, quickly followed by Nadine. She paced across the front of the stage as the introduction music finished.
Nadine opened with ‘Fast Food’, the title track from her second album. Nadine has been described as a blend of PJ Harvey, Siouxsie Sioux and Nick Cave. This was evident from that opening song. Clear from the start of Nadine’s performance was her striking stage presence and voice. Her strong vocals were passionate and full of emotion. The end of the opening song was met with a massive cheer, as were all her songs.
The next song ‘Kitchen Sink’ had more of a spoken word style, but its powerful delivery was equally captivating. The mood changed with ‘Club Cougar’ with its moodier atmosphere and spacey and dance feel. Nadine’s voice on this song had hints of the iconic Grace Jones.
Nadine explained in her Geordie accent, “I was scared as f*ck you’d not turn up with only 6 days’ notice. You’re my type of people.”
Next was the first of the new songs from her forthcoming ‘Filthy Underneath’ album. ‘Topless Mother’, the lead single from the album, was only released the day before the show. The song was inspired by a series of “comically tense” exchanges between Nadine and her counsellor. It was a strong intense song with a hypnotic and more staccato feel. ‘Buckfast’ by comparison was softer and musically reminded me a little of Shania Twain. Before the louder breaks later in the song, Nadine’s dance movements during the instrumental parts were gentler, to match the song’s mood.
Nadine confessed “It’s great to be back playing live. I thought at times it wasn’t going to happen.” Before the next new song, she announced her forthcoming album ‘Filthy Underneath’. When explaining its title, she joked “… as a good Muslim girl, I’ll leave you to work it out!”. That new track was ‘Greatest Dancer’ with thumping drums and prominent keyboard parts and more ethereal vocals.
On ‘Stealing Cars’ Nadine’s beautiful vocal was set to simple accompaniment, which worked really well. The way she held the long notes on this track in particular demonstrated the pure class in Nadine’s vocals. Even on those mellower songs, the strength in her voice was still there and fitted the music and mood perfectly.
The following three songs were from her 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album. At the start of ‘Trad’ Nadine stood in the wings as the pace of the musical intro increased, and came back centre stage as her vocals started. The tempo changed throughout that song to good effect before a controlled frenzy to close. For ‘Prayer Mat’ the stage lighting was dimmed as Nadine sang emotionally and, in contrast to other songs, stood still looking reflective during instrumental parts. ‘Ladies For Babies (Goats For Love)’, with its simple percussion and keyboard intro, got the audience clapping along. It was softer but mixed with intense breaks towards the end.
The next new song, ‘Even Light’ had a faster tempo and at times sounded deliberately agitated and edgy. The stage lighting reverted to the simple, red dark lighting for ‘Fool’ from 2015 ‘Fast Food’ album. This was an atmospheric song. Its introduction was post-punk from the late 1970s early 80s mixed with Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ (which you may remember as the BBC’s ‘Formula 1’ theme tune.).
Before her closing number ‘Out The Way’ (from her Mercury Prize nominated ‘Holiday Destination’ album), she expressed that she wished the song was no longer relevant. ‘Out The Way’ is a response to racism from the perspective of second generation immigrants and attitudes towards immigrants in the Syrian refugee crisis at the time. (Nadine has Pakistani and Norwegian roots and was born in the UK.) This was the fastest song of her set. Nadine screamed out the lyrics with meaning and feelings. There were many more pockets of dancing in the crowd for this final song.
Nadine Shah’s set closed at 9:52pm to very loud cheers and applause from a very appreciative Chalk crowd. Nadine performed with a smile on her face during her set, which was matched by the happy faces in the audience. The sheer power of her voice meant that she didn’t have to revert to shouting, (apart from screaming the lyrics on the final number, which was totally appropriate to the topic). Throughout her performance, she put real thought and intensity in every note and word she sang. Her quality and power of Nadine’s voice never dropped across the wonderful 13 song set.
Nadine Shah setlist:
‘Fast Food’ (from 2015 ‘Fast Food’ album)
‘Kitchen Sink’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Club Cougar’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Topless Mother’ (a 2023 single release)
‘Buckfast’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Greatest Dancer’ (an unreleased song)
‘Stealing Cars’ (from 2015 ‘Fast Food’ album)
‘Trad’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Prayer Mat’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Ladies For Babies (Goats For Love)’ (from 2020 ‘Kitchen Sink’ album)
‘Even Light’ (an unreleased song)
‘Fool’ (from 2015 ‘Fast Food’ album)
‘Out The Way’ (from 2017 ‘Holiday Destination’ album)
Support came from Edinburgh artist Callum Easter whose raw bluesy electronic sounds have been said to invoke echoes of Tom Waits and Mark Lanegan. It was an unusual combination of instruments for the multi-instrumentalist’s performance, an accordion and synthesiser. Callum’s folky bluesy sounds had a dark moody melancholy, almost sinister feel. This was added to by the dark stage, being dressed in black and lit just by a solitary spotlight. He did complain about the light in his eyes, muttering to himself about the lighting set up.
Although some people did seem to enjoy Callum’s performance, I didn’t find it engaging. His comment before the last song “Time for one more? Are you f*cking sick of me yet?”, for me, seemed to sum up his attitude. While not to my taste, there were several people cheering at the close of Callum’s set, who clearly enjoyed it.
