Holly Lerski (Gig Review)

Gig Review

Holly Lerski

- Starbucks Bar, Oxford Road –Sunday 13th February 2005

Sometimes when you go and see bands they can really surprise you sometimes when you least expect them to do so.

For example, I went once to go and see a Surf Guitar band called Man or Astroman? Who had all kinds of pictures scattered all over their singles and records of various Science fiction movies and what-ever and when I went to see them I spent a hour and a half watching three men dance around in Space Suits, which was completely and utterly mental.

Another good example was when I saw the excellent Rodrigo Y Gabriela at the end of last year. Although their records are good, watching them live was a completely ball game as the harmonies that came from the guitars was even more haunting live.

Holly Lerski who I saw recently live in concert certainly falls into the second category more than the 1st.

On record, her records are charming, polished radio Pop which although perhaps sit akin next according to some sources, Norah Jones and Katie Melia and that sort of ilk, for me carry more depth and certainly more passion and makes me think of the press releases which compared her to a spiritual cousin of Jeff Buckley, which is a pretty difficult comparison to live up if you think about it to yourself.

But to give Holly credit in particular with this set which was held on a Sunday afternoon in a local coffee bar (which is great if you love coffee but can be awkward if you hate the stuff like I do), she managed to pull this off to pretty good effect, proving like with Jeff Buckley, great songs can be transferred with complete different arrangements and still carry a heck of a impact.

Take for example, the second track on her current self released album “ Everyone’s Lonely” – On the CD it is a sweet little slice of Indie Pop I guess, but live, it was played out acoustically so beautifully it almost sounded like it was recorded that way, which is something even Jeff Buckley I guess himself would have been proud off, I guess.

The same also applying to cover versions like on her fairly recently released mini album “Greetings from LA”, where she tackled Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (also covered by Jeff Buckley oddly enough) but here she chose to play Ryan Adam’s “Wild Flowers” which I think would had him purring with delight if he had been sat among the small but emotionally involved crowd.

Excellent stuff all round – even she managed to keep several young children sitting behind me quiet, which is good going all round.