Joanna Newsom – Saturday September 18th @ The Palace

I’m in the heavens, and every time someone sheepishly walks past to go for yet another piss the stairs creak like grandma’s house in the dead of night. Where I am it’s a disparate rabble of audience. A large frequency of beards, but other than that there’s no discernible character trait of a Newsom fan. This is of course irrelevant; I suppose other reviewers might allude to it as being ‘all part of the magic of the evening’.

Lights dim and a voice emerges from the shadows: “I can see in the dark!” I don’t think many here know who Roy Harper is, judging by the quantity of people who get up two songs into his set to go and get more beer, or piss. Harper’s warm, homely, and frequently breaks off the start of songs to voice his opinions on visiting pontiffs. I’ll admit I’m more aware of his legend than I am of his work, but he reminds me of someone somewhere between John Renbourn and Bill Bailey. The talent and the whimsy. He’s a great choice for support, and I chuckle at gung-ho members of the audience that let out a sole clap having assumed his last song’s done.

First band, and then the Newsom are met to a predictably rapturous applause. As she delicately plucks the first chords of ‘Bridges and Balloons’ a change of tone is noticeable in her voice (I’ll omit the node story. Google it). Those who struggled with the Lisa Simpson shrill of her earlier work would find no qualms with a softer, rounded and more mature colour that her voice has this evening. The sparse track tonight benefits from her Ys Street band, as they stir what were still moments of a wonderful reworking.

‘Have One On Me’ then ‘Easy’ are perfectly conducted. With the band live you appreciate the imperative role they play on HOOM (Crap acronym), elsewhere making up for a full orchestra brilliantly on ‘Cosmia’. One of many highlights is a striking rendition of ‘Inflammatory Writ’. Tonight there’s a greater air of drunken, hazy bar room, with trombone being played to marvellous effect on ‘Good Intentions Paving Company’. Newsom’s fingers play arachnid across the strings and you get the feeling you’re watching her at the top of her game. She oozes confidence and appears in good spirits, thankfully addressing audience members who insist on being David Bailey throughout the early part of the gig. She graces them a few moments to grab their grainy pictures before settling into a superb, albeit far too brief set.

However, such is the duration of Ys and Have One On Me, when you see Newsom live you feel cheated that you’ve not been graced with an epic night. There’s curfews afoot and she returns for a superb and enchanting encore of ‘Peach, Plum, Pear’ and ‘Jackrabbits’ before disappearing into the Manchester rain.

(Photo courtesy of Phil King)