Probably still best known for adding her distinctive vocals to Damien Rice’s albums O and 9, Lisa Hannigan has since been carving out a singer-songwriter career of her own and stopped off at St George’s last night as part of a tour promoting her latest album Passenger.
Following an impressive warm up by band-member Gavin Glass, Lisa took to the stage with the rest of an extensive band, who would spend the rest of the evening switching between an even more extensive array of instruments.
A few songs in I began to wonder whether Hannigan could really cut it as a solo artist. Her soft and floaty voice worked brilliantly as a counterpoint to Rice’s on the albums they made together but without that interplay it did feel for a while that something was missing. However, what also became apparent is that with her husky, airy voice at the lower end of her range, shiny youthfulness at the top end and a constant playful oscillation between the two through, it didn’t really matter what she was singing about, or even if there were lyrics at all, it was all beautiful sounds.
Musical highlights for me were unfortunately probably the highlights from the first album Sea Sew rather than the new stuff – Venn Diagram and Pistachio for example.
As Glass pointed out during his short support set, St George’s is a great venue for the style of music they were bringing. The devil may have all the best tunes but “Jesus has all the best venues”. However, as the evening progressed and the band got into the swing I found myself wishing that I wasn’t hearing this in the middle-class, Radio 2 surroundings of St George’s but instead a crowded country pub on the rainy Irish coast with a whiskey. This is music to sit by the fire with.
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