Last night, in a rather stupidly excited state, I headed to London town to see one of my new favourite musicians, Lissie at the ICA.
Having just arrived in London, we checked out the venue and whilst wandering past I saw her outside having a cigarette (well how else would she perfect the beautiful edge to her voice?!) and had to go and say hello. She was absolutely lovely and was very excited about playing the show. Bonus.
We entered the theatre, which was an intimate venue and suited the event perfectly.
The evening began with four boys and their four guitars. Looking like they had mistakenly fallen out of a time machine. A throwback from the seventies. They began to play. The sound so powerful and their harmonies so beautiful they easily rivalled the likes of The Fleet Foxes and Mumford and Sons.
Their music was so beautifully and passionately played that you could tell they won over the hearts of the crowd instantly.
The four boys in Kassidy (the name of this awesome band, by the way) fit so perfectly together in style, in sound and in passion. They appeared to be genuinely humbled by the appreciation of the audience, which is in itself humbling to witness.
It is not often that I will go straight home from a gig and download an EP of a band I have just seen without first finding out a little more about them. However, this is testament to just how amazing they were, if my iPhone battery was not such a fail, I would have downloaded it then and there (the joys of modern technology!) It is just as wonderful (although there is always something special about seeing a band live) and has captured the magic of this truly unique band.
My only criticisms, if I had to be picky, were the microphones were up slightly too high in my opinion, the sound of the EP is so perfect and they could have achieved just as awesome an atmosphere without the booming sound. Also it would be nice to see the boys with a drummer, however, that might ruin the aesthetic of the band.
In spite of me, being picky for the sake of it, it is blindly obvious these boys are seriously talented, with voices that were fabulously harmonic and glided through the room smoother than warm caramel. I eagerly anticipate the arrival of their album.
A few minutes later and out came a tiny framed, beautiful and vulnerable looking girl. Lissie. Then she started to sing. All thoughts of vulnerability were shot to pieces. The power in her voice is simply immense. With a power to melt even the coldest hearts, her beautiful lyrics, wonderful rifts and astounding voice were able to make you forget instantly where you were and be transported to another world.
Her sweet explanations of family history made you feel and understand her passion for her music even more and made you fall in love with the tracks that bit harder. And call me old fashioned, but its so refreshing to hear an artist who doesn’t use crass language throughout their music or show, someone who actually has a grasp of the English language and uses it to make spine tingling, beautiful music.
However, enough of me ranting, back to the music – Lissie has an amazing voice and a very talented set of musicians playing with her, who again all appeared very humbled by the effect they had on the audience. I know arrogance is supposed to stream in music, but it is nice to see that there are some genuine, level headed artists out there.
The encore came, far too quickly, and out came Lissie, with a very special friend. Ellie Goulding. After their collaboration at the Great Escape in Brighton earlier this year, it appeared they were set to perform together again. Much to the crowd’s delight. Not having really heard much of Ellie’s music, I was extremely impressed by her voice and she is clearly another talented girl. They sang Patty Griffin’s Making Pies, whilst Ellie played it was astoundingly beautiful. And finally time for the last song, a fabulous cover of Lionel Ritchie’s Hello. In Lissie’s true bluesy country style, which had the whole crowd singing along.
Overall, it was an amazing, no frills evening that was absolutely as it should be – all about the music.
Two (three?) amazing groups, who I will most definitely make the effort to see in the future!
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