Aldous Harding’s new tour is a one-off show by a one-off Indie rock diva

Kiwi singer-songwriter Aldous Harding’s transformation into an Indie rock diva is complete, as her latest tour shows.

Aldous Harding performing with her band in the one-off show at City Recital Hall. Picture: Jared Leibowitz

• Master storyteller’s joyful bash
• Brave new worlds for Aldous
• Head and shoulders above the rest

Last time Kiwi singer-songwriter Aldous Harding was in town she showed us how she was transitioning from Gothic folk chanteuse to Indie rock heroine. Her concert at the Enmore Theatre in March 2020 came just days before the pandemic shut the world down.

Now she’s back, six months later than planned, for a one-off concert in the perfect acoustic of the City Recital Hall for a 90-minute set to promote her new album Warm Chris – her third with PJ Harvey’s producer John Parish – with a few favourites from Party and Designer mixed in.

Now based in Cardiff, Harding’s musical changeover is complete, aided by her excellent back-up quartet of Welsh musicians – Gwion Llewelyn drums and flugelhorn (sometimes simultaneously); classical harpist Mali Llywelyn on keys and vocals, with Harry Stevenson and Harding’s partner Huw Evans (aka H Hawkline) swapping guitar and bass roles.

Her nylon string acoustic guitar, either picked or strummed, is still at the cornerstone of her sound with the band offering precise, often sparse, instrumental and vocal contributions. Occasionally she plays keyboard – at which she is equally adept – and injects a jazzy chord sequence to the mix.

Her songs are strong on melody, rhythmically interesting and lyrically cryptic at times – in fact the way she manipulates her extraordinary voice makes it hard to make out what she is singing at times, and as her albums don’t include lyric sheets fans often have to go online to get the words.

But none of that matters when you see her live for she is one of the most compelling stage performers around with her long stares at the audience, facial grimaces and jerky puppet-on-a-string dancing. It’s perhaps no surprise that her Canadian-born mother Lorina Harding, as well as being a professional folk singer, was a puppeteer.

The set included 10 songs from her latest album, with the stabbing chords of Ennui anchoring her floating, dreamy vocals, leading into Tick Tock with its Velvet Underground feel. The arresting slow groove of Fever completed the trio of new songs before the packed audience shouted out in recognition of the opening chords of Treasure, from the Designer album, with Llywelyn’s catchy piano line and Stevenson’s minimal electric guitar adding nice textures.

Fixture Picture from the same album felt like a seasoned old favourite and Harding, truly a one-off, by now had the audience in thrall – she might have been rattling off a shopping list, no one would have cared.

This was an altogether slicker - but no less captivating - performance than that of 2020 with fewer long tuning breaks but still the mumbled occasional comments with plenty of smiles.

Huw Evans (aka H. Hawkline) performing as Aldous Harding's support at the City Recital Hall. Picture: Jared Leibowitz

Hawkline started the evening with a lovely set of his solo songs with backing tracks recorded on his father’s reel to reel tape recorder from when he worked with the BBC. Sitting cross-legged in a chair with his Fender Stratocaster, Evans sang in a plaintive falsetto, reminiscent at times of Scottish alternative singer composer King Creosote (Kenneth Anderson) and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk.

The final number, I Don’t Want To Be The Last Thing On Your Mind, set up an infectious beat with Hawkline’s one-man band of drums, bass and keys coming through the speakers from his dad’s tape recorder.

DETAILS

• CONCERT Aldous Harding

• WHERE City Recital Hall

• WHEN October 22