Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are venues strewn throughout this land that somehow on the surface don’t seem from the outset, from the first eyes upon it, to be the type of place in which anything other than a grand piano in the corner and lady with an impressive gown and gentle manners performing on it for the tea and smoked salmon brigade could be construed out of place.

This is the next century, as Blur once wrote, and in the days of offering a place, a safe harbour in which a young band can put themselves out infront of an audience not beset with rampant conversation or intoxicating dreams of holding up a bar all night. It is a move in the right direction that sees venues such as District House open its doors to the prospect of super music and the start of a long lingering affair with a band worth its weight in platinum riding the great Mersey River’s waves.

Anaisa took the sizeable crowd inside District House on a flourishing ride, one that dominated the inside of the venue with an immense power, Shannen Bamford’s keyboards working overtime and with politeness the metaphorical lady in the gown at the nonexistent piano was told where she keep her pedals, for Ms. Bamford had this gig under her control.

Anaisa exude confidence, they offer the listener the chance to imbibe at the table with them and sup on the words of a vocalist who looks her audience straight in the eye and never lets them forget the experience. In some this ability is unnerving, the intensity of the lyrics coupled with this stare from the stage is enough to reduce some crowd members to ashes, their resolve broken and taken down a dark path. Yet Anaise take the resolve as they go through their set, comprising Perfect Two, Keep On Dancing, Amy and Down and enhance it, they offered a beautiful glimpse of what could be on a night where they were the headline act in which the stare from the stage was not one of frightening future prospects but the smile of come join us in this temptation.

A cracking set by Anaisa, one of positive creativity.

Ian D. Hall