Imogen Heap at Shepherds Bush Empire

Imogen Heap – Shepherds Bush Empire – 19 February 2010

Words and photos by Marcus Maschwitz

I’ve been a big fan of Imogen’s work since I first heard Frou Frou too many years ago and I have always been excited at the possibility of seeing her live and witnessing what I imagined would be sheer genius but NOTHING could have prepared me for the magic that I was lucky to be a part of tonight at Shepherds Bush Empire.

Imogen is really cool and very interactive with her fans and for the last week or so on her Facebook and Twitter she has been talking us through the troubles she has been having with her throat and many people were advising her to cancel / postpone shows but it was clear how much effort she was going through to make sure that this wouldn’t be an option and after seeing doctors and a throat specialist and taking some great steroids, she decided that she would give it a try. I was a little worried for her and a little worried that I might be disappointed but from the second she made her way on to the stage, it was clear that she was going to give tonight the best shot she ever could.

She brought on stage with her a crystal glass half full of sparkling water which she placed on her table to the side of the stage, picked up half a lemon which had been waiting for her and rubbed a bit on her finger and began swirling her finger around the rim of the class trying to make it give off some sounds which sadly it didn’t. No worries, she put the glass aside, after joking to want to smash it, and she began emulating the sound it would’ve made with her voice. She recorded the sound and began looping it back while recording a few other odd sounds and looping those back too until she had layers of recordings that sounded incredible to which she started playing her piano and singing along. I’ve seen a lot of artists playing a similar style of music but I have NEVER before seen someone playing music this way with so much excitement and randomness and never before has it sounded so interesting.

The stage tonight was FILLED with “toys” everywhere which Imogen used to make up the sounds for her set. Her show is made up of good music as well as “story telling” in a sense that she walks around explaining what she is doing and almost walks the crowd through her thought process. Apart from introducing her band, she also introduces a few of her sound making tools which included many bells, a gong, a squeeky rubber duck, thumb pianos, half a chopped bird cage, rubber pipes and and and …

She made her way through songs both old and new and it felt more like a personal sit-in of her improv rehearsal / writing sessions as apposed to a normal live show which I really appreciated being a part of because there is no way that the songs she played would ever sound the exact same as they did tonight. I feel honoured and really lucky to have been a part of this experience. It was amazing and a definite once off experience. Imogen is cute, friendly, quirky, excited, encouraging and GREATLY talented. When she was involved in Frou Frou there was a lot of press stating / questioning how much of it she was actually responsible and a lot more credit was given to producer / partner Guy Sigsworth who she worked with, but this all changed when she released “Speak for Yourself” in 2005 which she wrote and produced on her own. Tonight for me, it became 100% clear that Imogen is a driving force and I don’t doubt that other people have had a big part in her music making but I definitely feel that she is the mastermind behind it.

Right from the start of the set she said that her voice was not going to be perfect and compared it to walking on ice because she knew the direction she wanted to be going in and what notes she wanted to be hitting but she kept being “slid” in a slightly different path. After a few songs thought I didn’t really find it noticable and it really wasn’t even worth me considering because her heart was there to the full. No one in the crowd noticed any errors and all this just goes to prove to me that no matter what the artist is experiencing onstage “technically” the crowd will appreciate and feed off the fact that the artist continues to give their efforts and enjoys the show themselves. I’ve seen too many bands spend time on stage moaning because their monitors don’t sound completely perfect or that the stage is too small or that the made a mistake playing one note and most of this would just go right over the crowds heads as long as they enjoy themselves.

The night ended off running 30 minutes over curfew with 3 of my favourite songs (Hide and Seek, Just for Now and The Moment I Said It) and I appreciated so much that Imogen had made sure to finish off her set. Curfew in London is taken really seriously and the artists are fined if they run over this time which Imogen pointed out was £500 per 10 minutes. Amazing. I almost want to buy her albums again just to thank her.

I cannot wait for more of her music to be recorded in the future and to see her again live. This was one of my favourite live shows to date but for completely different reasons to any show I have ever been to before. It’s hard to explain and I know I won’t be able to but if you weren’t there, just know that you missed out.

Setlist: First Train Home, Wait It Out, Between Sheets, Headlock, Bad Body Double, Speeding Cars, Little Bird, Improv (The Shepherdess), Half Life, Aha!, Canvas, The Walk, Swoon, 2-1, Tidal, Hide And Seek, Just For Now, The Moment I Said It

NOTE: Imogen recorded a live improvised session during the show which she had mixed and edited to be sold and all proceeds from the sale will be going to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. You can hear and purchase the track by CLICKING HERE

Posted on Friday, 19 February 2010 in Live Reviews, Mainarticles | 5 Comments »
Tagged as Ellipse, Frou Frou, iMegaphone, Imogen Heap, Shepherds Bush, Shepherds Bush Empire, Speak for Yourself