Posted: Saturday 16th August 2008

Reviewed by Andrew Jones

The show this evening by Nina Nastasia at Camden's Roundhouse forms part of a month-long series of concerts that sees the venue transformed into a more club-like space of around 400 capacity. Reduced from the venue's full size that can actually host up to 3000 people, tonight's all seating set up (with table service for drinks to boot) would on the surface seem the perfect environment to spend an evening in the company of the stripped down folk stylings of our headliner.

Not so for tonight's support O'Death however, who seem out of sorts when faced with the enforced sophistication of their surroundings. Their folk sound is a truly boisterous slice of Americana, at times recalling a Cajun folk knees-up of the type depicted in the conclusion of the movie Southern Comfort. Worlds away from the environment they find themselves in this evening, it is a credit to them that they elicit such a warm response from the crowd and although some songs do fall a little flat overall the performance must be seen as a small triumph, and against the odds as well.

Nina Nastasia takes the stage this evening in near darkness and begins her performance without any word of introduction. Although Nastasia's live performances are often augmented by either her band or simply drummer Jim White, tonight's show is performed entirely solo and all its successes are all down to the magic she creates in the interactions between her astonishing, versatile voice, her unadorned acoustic guitar and an expectant audience of sophisticated folkies.

It follows though, unfortunately, that these simple ingredients also play host to several of the performance's shortcomings. Some of the songs this evening seem slight, lasting a little over a minute, and basic strums of much of her playing means that she occasionally has her work cut out with the lack of variety on offer.

This is not the whole story by a long shot though, and when one of her songs does stand out from the occasional sameyness it leaves no room for doubting her formidable credentials in the notoriously crowded world of female singer-songwriters. One such highlight is on Stormy Weather where Nina creates a winningly seductive atmosphere that truly does justice to both the intimacy and grandeur of this specially redesigned Roundhouse with a starkly beautiful rendition of the song.

Through the evening this seduction continues as Nina's between song banter engages various members of the audience and even includes the lighting man, Anders, from whom she jokingly requests a Vegas-style spotlight to quickly search through the venue before stopping unexpectedly on one of the audience's tables. "Are you embarrassed?" she asks the spot-lit table. "That would be my worst nightmare!".

Later in the evening Nina employs another member of the audience to join her onstage to hold up the lyrics of a new song that she has not yet committed to memory, and although the resultant song is slightly haphazard in its execution it is also an endearing scene that underlines the playful intimacy of the night's entertainment. The re-jigged Roundhouse is the perfect venue for tonight's show and more than fulfills it's billing of providing the illusion of being a much smaller venue, although this is achieved in no small part to the particular talents of Nina Nastasia, who little by little this evening ensures delight for the assembled crowd of folk purists.