Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

As Kate Nash motored her way through a rather superb set at the newly opened East Village Arts Club, there was surely nobody in the excitable audience that couldn’t see how much the artist had grown as a performer and as a woman. The evidence was there for all to hear with the release of her third album, the exceptional Girl Talk, and yet somehow if that demonstration of womanhood was somehow and unlikely missed by the listener, anyone making their way to the plush new surrounds that house the East Village would have seen the corroboration with their own eyes.

Kate Nash still possesses the youthful guile, the incredible smile that captivated her core audience in the first place when she released her debut album Made of Bricks, however now there is a steely determination behind the come listen to me eyes, a determination that has made the growing up essential and as Kate Nash played during the night it was a wonderful image to see and enjoy.

Kate Nash performed a great set of songs and whilst there may have been a few in the crowd that longed for the Ms. Nash who sat behind the keyboard, gave a beautiful smile, talked and sang through the evening but never straying too far from the comfortable place she had found, this Kate Nash is more confident, more adept and utterly charming enough to stand out at the front of the stage and perform her music. Not only is she more confident, she has retained that basic joy of life enough to make the stage seem like a friend, something to be savoured and used to its full potential.

The songs came thick and fast, delivered with the promise of a woman on top of her game and more used to being scathing about the injustices of the world, sexism and the stupidity of certain so called pop songs. Tracks such as Kiss That Grrrl, Do-Wah-Doo, Mariella, Foundations and Free My Pussy, which was written and dedicated to the wrongly convicted women behind the band Pussy Riot, thrilled the crowd and made the evening swim past far, far too quickly.

A great night out provided by the woman whose music is just as tantalising as her courageous views, not only a great musician, full of verve and great style but a woman who stands by her brilliant feminist opinions.

Ian D. Hall