Photos by Philip Cosores
On her upcoming tour of the UK, Laura Marling is playing exclusively in cathedrals. This may sound pretentious or unnecessary, but listening to A Creature I Don’t Know, her new album, it makes sense; the songs range from grand to intimate, two qualities that can be enhanced by this kind of surrounding and, most importantly, they are traditional and timeless. Unfortunately there are not many of these kinds of locations to be found in America, but for her stop in Los Angeles fans were fortunate enough to be treated to a show in Hollywood Forever Cemetery’s Maisonic Lodge, which, with a little bit of candlelight, a little imagination and some of the magic from Marling, was just as spiritual and special as anywhere else she is going to play.
Opening up the event was Alessi’s Ark, the moniker for fellow London-based female singer songwriter Alessi Laurent-Marke. Having seen her play a handful of times before, I can safely say that a seated, candlelit venue on a Sunday evening is certainly the most conducive atmosphere for her music. Her simple acoustic melodies are soothing, and her quirky tales she tells in her melodious tones are lightweight and pleasing to the ear. For as idiosyncratic as her lyrics are, her inter-song banter is sure to raise more than a few laughs through her pure innocence and joy of being there. It may not be the most exciting or interesting music, but it’s warming and heartfelt, and in the right situation that can be entertaining too.
Artists promoting a new album usually start off with their newer material before reaching into their back catalogue to please their fans, but on this occasion Marling and her band started with a couple of songs from her strongest outing yet, I Speak Because I Can. Opening with “Rambling Man” the line “let it always be told that I was who I am” rang truer than ever, with Marling performing as she was clearly destined to do. Things became even more impressive with “Alpha Shallows” from the same album, and then she then decided to move back rather than forwards by playing the bookends of her debut album “Alas I Cannot Swim” and “Ghosts.”
Finally, four songs into the set, it was time to play some new material, and the song chosen, “I Was Just A Card,” probably could not have better emphasised how far she has come as a songwriter when juxtaposed with her older material. The intricacies of the music were more engrossing, the song is more mature lyrically and her vocals switched adeptly from her regular timbre to her falsetto mid-line. The mid-set highlight came when they combined two of the new songs “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “Salinas” (“because everyone loves a medley” Marling quipped). The conclusion of the double bill saw a slow build that allowed the harmonies and cello to make themselves more known than ever, and even a French horn was introduced.
“Salinas” was the perfect bow out for the rest of the band, as they left the stage following it. Marling then proceeded to play a solo set that featured many of the new songs, which impressively did not blend together as can happen with an acoustic performer of a lower calibre. “Goodbye England” was the one upbeat song amongst a string of Marling’s most sombre tracks (“Rest In The Bed,” “What He Wrote,” “Night After Night”) and she joked both about how miserable all of the songs were and how “Goodbye England” was completely inappropriate for the time and place (being a song about snow). Her self-deprecation could be confidently spewed in the knowledge that the crowd was adoring the performance and lapping up every song, no matter how depressing or out of place it was. Marling also used the opportunity to show off a new song that seems to be just as strong as anything else in her collection.
Laura’s band returned for the final two songs and received a hearty and deserved applause on their arrival. Following lead single from A Creature I Don’t Know, “Sophia,” Marling explained her system of not having an encore, whereby, if you wanted an encore then the final song is it, and if you didn’t then the final song is just the final song. She may have been slightly awkward in explaining this, but as her final song, “I Speak Because I Can,” explains, when she says things she means them. And, when you have as many interesting and insightful things to say in your music as Laura Marling does, people are always going to be more than happy to come along and hear them.
Laura Marling set list:
Rambling Man
Alpha Shallows
Alas I Cannot Swim
Ghosts
I Was Just A Card
Hope in the Air
Don’t Ask Me Why
Salinas
Rest in the Bed
What He Wrote
Godbye England (Covered In Snow)
Made By Maid
New Song
Night After Night
Sophia
I Speak Because I Can
