Amanda Palmer at Koko
Last week I saw Amanda Palmer for the second time this year, following her August show at the ICA. The main difference between this and the ICA gig was not just that she had a cast on her right foot (she got run over in Belfast a couple weeks prior to Koko), but that she was accompanied by the Danger Ensemble, a performance group from Australia who do choreographed dance to some of the songs.
And what’s more, it worked fantastically well. The routines gave songs like the touching Strength Through Music an extra emotional punch to the guts and Coin Operated Boy an extra dose of humour. The Ensemble and Amanda also did a couple of lipsync performances – one for Guitar Hero and the main set closer – a cover of Rihanna’s Umbrella. It’s fairly obvious that the live shows quite possibly won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but for me it was something that added so much.
Otherwise, the setlist was amazing. It was one that had changed a bit since the ICA gig but the songs that Amanda added were spot on. I had been hoping that she’d play Oasis, one of the best songs off her recently-released solo album, but wasn’t trying to be too optimistic. Thankfully, Neil Gaiman, who helped contribute to the artwork of the album, just happened to be in town to awkwardly help out on tambourine whilst support act Jason Wembley played acoustic guitar. Other highlights included the rousing cover of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer in the encore, Half Jack complete with an epic extended intro and Have To Drive.
Setlist:
Astronaut
Ampersand
Blake Says
Bad Habit
Strength Through Music
Guitar Hero
I Google You
Coin Operated Boy
Oasis (f/ Neil Gaiman and Jason Webley)
Mrs. O
Have To Drive
Half Jack
Umbrella
Livin’ On A Prayer (f/ Jason Wembley)
Leeds United
The photo above is not of the Koko show unfortunately, but was taken at the Brighton gig by ‘beast love’, who is an absolutely brilliant photographer. Check out his photos on his Flickr account because they really are fantastic.
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Posted on October 17th, 2008 by Max
Filed under: Gigs, Reviews
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