A reluctant admission to begin with, up until six months ago Jane Weaver wasn’t even on my radar. To my eternal shame I was not aware of her at all and it was only a chance remark by a friend that piqued my interest.
Then by good fortune I saw her turn in a lovely set at the Greenman Festival in August, which even a deluge of annoyingly persistent Welsh drizzle couldn’t ruin.
So tonight it is with great relief that she’s indoors, the roof’s not leaking and she’s playing in the small intimate confines of Nottingham’s Bodega, a fantastic venue where it’s hip to read a book at the bar, or if you’re brave enough you can have a natter with Jason Williamson from local heroes Sleaford Mods.
Virtually all of the tracks tonight were off her latest album The Silver globe, although she kicked off tonight with a track from 2011, The Fallen By Watch Bird, that proved irresistible with its relentless driving momentum.
Weaver’s band proceed to pulverize the senses with their ultra tight rhythmic onslaught, combined with her breathy high register vocals you can’t help be swept along on a wave of sexiness and choppy guitar, no sooner had that finished they carried on in the same vein with Argent, which sadly is not a tribute to Rod Argent but another gloriously uplifting tune nevertheless.
At the forefront of the tiny stage is Weaver with a modest keyboard and microphone, conducting proceedings like an icy golden haired folk rock Boadicea. Behind her are four superb musicians dedicated to blowing your mind with some serious psychfolk to die for.
The hour goes by in a blur of difficult to categorise music with ‘Sandy Denny goes electronica’ possibly the closest to an accurate description that you’ll get. Live she creates a wall of mesmerising sound, with I need a connection and Your Time in This Life superb, as was new single Mission Desire and an encore of Stealing Gold.
*Support tonight came from four very young girls from Derby called Babe Punch, we don’t talk about Derby round Nottingham, but on this occasion I shall put my prejudices to one side. This bunch are ok actually, not exactly The Slits but they did have some good shouty choruses. They seemed to be having fun and no one lynched them, not to my knowledge anyway. Although their cover of The Cure’ s Just like heaven was almost a capital offence.
Words by John Haylock, pictures by Arthur Hughes
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