Nerina Pallot - Tuesday 2nd February - The Pigalle Club

Nerina Pallot dusted off the cobwebs with a special intimate show at The Pigalle Club tonight. Having watched her regular stream on Monday nights where she has been inviting special guests to play with her and most recently revealed a new song and some excellent covers (Tori Amos' Winter was just sublime), Nerina promised this show would be a special one. 

Opening act Charlene Soraia showcased some nice folksy tunes accompanied only by her guitar. She has a beautiful fingerpicking and lilting guitar playing style and entertains us with her wistful songs about ex boyfriends (Rowing) and icy moons on Jupiter (Postcards from Io). She exclaimed that she'd been too busy chatting to Nerina to get a watch to tell how long she had to play but she certainly didn't overstay her welcome and finished with the very haunting and beautiful Daffodils. She's one to watch.

The Pigalle Club had filled to capacity by now and a number of patrons were crowded at the back of the floor standing and eagerly awaiting Nerina's arrival (the venue is table seating for the most part) .

Tonight's set was a very special set indeed. Opening with Every Little Thing, the emphasis was certainly on the intimacy that this little venue afforded and the song rang out so clearly and beautifully. Idaho followed this up alongside oldie Blood is blood, to the delight of everyone and When Did I Become Such A Bitch changed things up. A new song was then debuted and Nerina found time to finally address the crowd, telling everyone that this song is not about her and her husband before announcing its title, I Want To Break Up. It's an amazing and haunting song.

Every note rings out and the audience is captivated by her performance. Of course Nerina finds time to talk about some of the songs such as one she debuted at ICA about an ex boyfriend who wrote about her and made the whole thing into something more than it was to which she replied by writing this lounge (his pet hate) inspired song, the tongue in cheek I Probably Deserve It.  She also mentions her long suffering husband Andy who puts up with her and her Sainsbury's obsession. In between she manages to debut one more new song, Will You Still Love Me, which again is just an amazing ballad with a great piano riff and was played in her Monday night video cast.

Oldie My Last Tango also gets an airing along with the usuals, the acoustic set of Mr. King and Human,  Real Late Starter, the "shagging" song Geek Love, Learning To Breathe and her closer being I Don't Want To Go Out where she fluffed the intro by telling people to go out instead of staying at home as per the song's sentiments. Its Nerina at her quirky best.

Her encore consisted of the beautiful It Was Me and Sophia and I think I even saw a real hint of a smile during Sophia, where she was clearly ecstatic with this set and the reception she'd received tonight.

Overall it was a great set of old and new songs, and the new songs in particular were excellent and just shows how talented she is, one song having been only written 34 hours prior.

She wasn't as chatty as previous gigs but certainly still addressed and acknowledged the crowd and seemed extremely confident in her performance tonight, one of her best to date and no doubt helped by the wonderfully intimate atmosphere.

A string of dates will follow in April along with the Union Chapel gig which I've been told is going to be a really grand affair. New single I Don't Want To Go Out will be out in a few weeks time so be sure to check it out.