The support band is really odd, I mean she is just downright weird. Laura J Martin is like a one woman marching band, playing the flute part over pre-recorded noises, layered singing and some pretty good beats. The engineer struggles a bit with the sound, probably because it is all routed through a looper but she is generally well received, even if it is jsut because the girl is quite clearly insane!
Given the strangeness of the first act, I might be forgiven for wondering whether we were in for more weirdness, whether Alice Russell has taken on a bizarre new DIY direction, but with a blast of furious funk her band debunks my fears and almost literally raises the roof. She seems to have boundless energy and her band is tight and funky.
And the voice is HUGE. There are classic 70s soul-type songs, 80s electro-funk and pure disco and everybody dances like crazy people. I've seen her perform with other people, but here singing her own songs Ms Russell is fearsome, a crowd-pleasing dervish of frightening power who can make you laugh out loud one minute and close to tears the next.
The gig inspires me to seek out her albums, Pot of Gold is the most recent and it is only okay, more laid-back than the live experience and a bit too RnB for my tastes, but on the other hand I really enjoy her 2005 album My Favourite Letters.
On the way home, there is a bible on the seat of the bus.
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