It’s surprising how clear and direct Julia Holter’s performance comes across at SWG3 tonight, considering the distant sounds and heavy reverb of Holter’s early records.
This is a product of the turn on her latest album, Have You in my Wilderness, towards a sound that’s stripped back and marked by clarity, where each of the instruments (particularly Devin Hoff’s double bass) is crisp and pronounced.
The stage is spared of any moody lighting, and Holter is silly and unpretentious in her stage banter; “oh, he’s playing with his bells”, she says frustratedly at one point, waiting for her drummer to start a song.
There’s a funny moment seeing the whimsical LA artist come into contact with SWG3’s audience, when someone belts out “IBROX” when Holter asks where she should spend the morning after.
“I, uh, didn’t hear that,” responds Holter.
What particularly comes across live is how remarkable Holter’s voice is, how peculiar and idiosyncratic her pronunciation and emphases of words are.
It’s particularly distinct on ‘Lucette Stranded on the Island’, where the call-and-response chorus with soft-singing violinist Dina Maccabee, allows Holter’s wails to become weirder and wilder, but Holter’s approximation of the songs on the record is so accurate that the embellishments on the record – the strings, the horns – are noticeably lacking.
It can often feel like listening to the album, simply with one of the textures taken out.
Lead single from Wilderness, ‘Feel You’, feels uncomfortably small and quiet, the swells of the orchestra missing where they fill out the middle of the sound on the record, but maybe it’s not the right environment for Holter’s show either; somewhere between classical and pop, long, meandering songs like ‘Vasquez’ demand more of a still atmosphere than a space with a bar could provide.
Still, while it’s not perfect, it’s got the makings of a great performance, and perhaps The Royal Concert Hall beckons Julia Holter one day soon for the show she deserves.
Words: Tony Boardman
Photos: Beth Chalmers
