Photo: WENN
Coupling the brass fittings of eagles, ancient warriors and noble figures with precariously dangling chandeliers, The Forum in Kentish Town is decorated very succinctly to the performance Laura Marling delivered upon us last night, the room befitted a deserving majesty, one that was fulfilled.
You might have picked up on the loose religious terminology, and that’s intentional. There was something genuinely celestial about Marling’s presence and, without going into the minutia of the theoretical similarities between religious practice and gig going, the crowd responded accordingly, with reverence and respect for something authentically spiritual.
Starting the set with a quartet of “bangers”, as she labelled them afterwards, ‘False Hope’ led into ‘Master Hunter’ which took a sinister turn for ‘Devil’s Spoke’ before ‘Short Movie’ dragged us back from the wolves, Laura’s hand never ceased strumming her resonator guitar and the double bass and percussion sustained the momentum of the performance.
Following a haunting solo rendition of ‘Once’, ‘The Muse’ was a discharging middle-point with a locked in blues groove, walkabout bass and an impeccable guitar solo from Pete Randall giving serious nods to Stevie Ray Vaughan - something we thought we’d never say about a Laura Marling show.
Because what used to be a circular argument revolving around Marling’s likeness to Joni Mitchell has now fizzled out into an industry-wide appreciation of her solitary status as an artist. Her guitar prowess is a sight to be seen since Marling has developed into a truly underrated style-maker of the instrument. She can swap her fingerstyle from playful and intricate scale runs to the crushing sounds of a harnessed tempest like on ‘Alpha Shallows’.
As a London exclusive, Laura graced us with a few cuts off of her first album, Alas I Cannot Swim. ‘My Manic and I’ was testament to the presence of Marling’s irreplaceable songwriting at an early age, the title track was revered with mumbled sing-a-longs and ‘Ghosts’ was a poignant reflection of Marling’s career. The innocence and start-up Marling that wrote and performed the version of ‘Ghosts’ we’re accustomed to is long gone. Despite it’s youthful lyricism, the track was performed with vigour and conviction masterfully, bridging the gap between the humanising and the divine.
Laura Marling played:
False Hope
Master Hunter
Devil’s Spoke
Short Movie
Salinas
Once
The Muse
Ghosts
My Manic and I
Alas, I Cannot Swim
Do I Ever Cross Your Mind? (Dolly Parton cover)
Goodbye England (Covered In Snow)
What We Wrote
Alpha Shallows
Night After Night
Rambling Man
How Can I
Sophia
