It's very difficult for me to be sincere

 April already - and only my second gig of the year!

Every week, I make an effort to at least partially listen to all the new entries in the album chart. This generally plays a strong role in reinforcing my musical stereotypes, but every so often someone unknown surprises me by producing something I actually quite like - which I almost always then immediately forget about. However, Orla Gartland has managed it twice in the past four years so I at least remember her name - and so when came she up on the list of work freebies playing close to home at the Kentish Town Forum, I thought I'd pop along to see how her music translated into a live performance.


And so I rocked up on a lovely sunny evening at what I thought was quite an early arrival to find the standing area already full, the seated area pretty busy and the first support act already on stage - and making some most peculiar noises. TWST (not her real name, apparently) does kinda shrieky singing over dancey backing tracks - it wasn't unpleasant, but I did pick up a general "err, OK" vibe from the audience. Showing my age, I was completely distracted from her set by the fact that she looks like Twist from Spaced (which will mean nothing to many people) - that can't be a coincidence, can it? I also felt sorry for the lass because she'd lost the top half of her trousers.



The next support up was slightly more conventional fare from the still unconventionally named Hohnen Ford (her real name, but only her surname). It was just her and her keyboard on stage singing "proper" songs - she was given a decent amount of time on stage and had a nice voice and an interesting style because she what she played rarely matched what she sang, but they didn't clash either. However, unfortunately the sound levels were all wrong for both her and her keyboard so it just came across as a bit of a sonic jumble - I appreciate support acts don't get a lot of time to sound check, but she really wasn't helped here (and checking her stuff out on YouTube certainly confirms this). There's certainly potential there though - and the good news is that she can at least afford a complete set of trousers.



After all this, the lights came up for a pleasingly short length of time - just long enough for people to get another pint or, if you prefer, two in one large glass (I heard someone declare "I am NEVER going back to pint glasses" - but be prepared to remortgage the house first) and then the venue was full and dark, with Orla's entrance music announcing her imminent arrival. And she uses Bonnie Tyler's absolutely splendid "Holding Out For A Hero" (it's called the Hero tour) - before arriving on stage dashing about like an absolute idiot wearing a superhero cape, which is certainly a fun way to announce your arrival (she was also wearing something suitably weird on her legs).


And the fun vein continued throughout the evening with a set of great songs which were well played. There were only three of them on stage - Orla on guitar with a fine voice, a bass guitar/keyboard player and a drummer, but they made a big and tight sound. And they've got a decent repertoire of songs to call on - "SOUND OF LETTING GO", "You're Not Special, Babe", "More Like You" and "Back Seat Driver" were my favourites, but they are all perfectly listenable with Chappell Roan's "Red Wine Supernova" being the obligatory cover. The sound reminded me of Rilo Kiley, but Haim might be a slightly better known reference point for people.


There was also decent audience interaction - engaging banter (the audience were even split in two for a sing-along at one point) but also sincerity with her tapping into the currently (eternally?) popular vein of self-doubt and need for validation. All of which chimed well with the audience who were obviously very familiar with her work - there were a lot of people that knew all the words. There were also a lot of very young people there - I saw one person who might have been a mere ten years younger than me, but apart from that I reckon they were all just out of kindergarten. My favourite banter was at the "first last song" moment - "OK guys - I'm going to let you in to a trade secret. I'm now going to lie to you - lie to your faces and tell you this is the last song. So just go with it, OK?".


All in all, Orla and her band put in a strong performance and made for a very enjoyable evening - I see she's playing Glastonbury and if by some miracle I get a resale ticket, I'll certainly make an effort to pop along and see her because it would be a great sunny afternoon watch. She's also off on a surprisingly large US tour in May and I wish her well on her travels - I hope they enjoy her as much as I and the rest of the audience did last night.





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