Bat For Lashes live in Hamburg, 29.10.2009

This was one of the things I was really looking forward to this year: Bat For Lashes live. Having been postponed from May to October it was a long wait but last Thursday it was finally over and Natasha Khan and her band played the stage in the strangely titled location "Uebel & Gefährlich". It was a proper venue actually, good size, and packed with people.

Before the main act the support band Hecuba entered the stage and gave a, uhm, well, pretty horrible performance. Sorry, Hecuba, nothing against you personally, but this kind of music and performance simply is not my cup of tea at all.

Then, finally, sigh, it was showtime. Bat For Lashes! From the first song on it was magical. They played a concise set of about 90 minutes length (including the encore) and I literally fell from the non-existing chair I was not sitting on: what you saw - or rather: what you heard - was real musical art, a stunning performance of truely original songs. Each song was a new highlight after the highlight we had just had the pleasure to listen to.

In hindsight, two thing were outstanding (apart from Ms Kahn's and the band members exceptional skills, of course): first, the song "Trophy" from the first album had been enhanced onstage with a reverb-rich and well-distorted guitar which resulted in an incredibly intense, dense but also stunningly dark atmosphere. Second, the drummer did an unparalleled job with her drum-playing on "Siren Song". She ran over a kettledrum and the row of toms using kettledrum sticks with incredible speed and perfect timing. Round and round, back and forth, until the song ended and I had to be peeled off the wall to which that song had pinned me to.

If you have a chance to see them: don't miss it. This is true art, created by and performed only for the love to music.

Most YouTube live gig videos are of pretty lousy quality, but here's one of the rare good ones: