Bat For Lashes at the Union Chapel

Embed from Getty Images

Bat For Lashes
Union Chapel, 16 May 2016

This was a no phones show so I wasn't able to capture Natasha Khan in her striking scarlet bride attire (thankfully Getty's embed feature has come in handy here to give you a taste) but believe me she looked like an amazing cross between Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice, a Hammer Horror bride and Kate Bush in that early Wuthering Heights video. All of this was due to the fact that Bat For Lashes forthcoming new LP is a concept album called The Bride, telling the story of a woman whose husband-to-be dies on the day of their wedding, and these few preview shows - all held in churches - gave us the chance to hear the story performed in a beautifully atmospheric and evocative setting.
The show even started with Khan walking up the aisle, red bouquet in hand and black lace veil flowing, all the way up to the stage. "I'm so happy so many people came to my wedding," she jokes, and indeed many of the audience, who were asked to turn up in wedding attire, have happily obliged (one girl in pill box hat and long lace coat even looks like she should be part of the show).

Tonight, she explains, she is going to play most of the new record and tell the story along the way and it begins on a happy note with the ode to love, I Do, in which her character sings of her excitement about her forthcoming nupitals. Joe's Dream, which follows, is also suitably romance, giving his side of the love story but by the third song, In God's House, everything has gone wrong and things take a much darker turn as she has a premonition of her fiancee's death at the wheel of his car on the way to the church. It's all hugely dramatic and emotional and incredibly enough, hugely effective and the choice to play the songs all together quickly draws you into the story. Best of all though, the music is fantastic and Khan's clear, precise voice echoes around the church in the most haunting and enchanting way.

The next song, Honeymooning Alone, she tells us is The Bride racing off in her car after hearing the news, "she's pissed off, quite frankly" she jokes.The story runs through her stages of grief and even features a supernatural meeting in the woods (the song Close Encounters she explains is about "making love to someone from the other side") and eventually ends up with the protagonist proclaiming "I will love again!" It's hard to remember what each tune sounds like but there are defiant electronic-infused numbers and gorgeous sorrowful ballads and the final song builds up in an epic and hopeful way. In short, the new album sounds like it will be amazing.

Aside from the intimate setting which is always preferable, it was also nice to see Khan with such a small stripped back band: just a girl on keyboards, a drummer and bassist (although they all also played other instruments) and Khan herself often joining in on guitar, autoharp or keyboards when she wasn't ethereally dancing in the centre of the stage. She apologises to her mum for not playing her favourite off the new record but tells us she wants to leave us with a few surprises but I would have been happy for her to play it all, it sounded that good.

After playing nine songs from The Bride she returns to the stage for what she calls the "treats" section of the show. This is essentially a short "best of" her previous albums beginning with a starkly beautiful version of Laura, which showcases Khan's pure and powerful voice in a wonderful way.The band return for a cover of The Carpenter's We've Only Just Begun (tying in with the wedding theme) and despite an amusing false start, like Sonic Youth's version of Superstar, she manages to turn it into a truly spooky and chilling cover. "We'd make the most depressing wedding band ever," she laughs but she isn't wrong" An effective reworking of Horse And I follows - the first song from her first record she tells us - as if we didn't already know, but with its fantastic harpsichord intro still in tact. 

The treats continue with What's A Girl To Do? featuring Khan dancing barefoot microphone in hand, a grooving and joyful Marilyn and of course her ode to the Karate Kid himself, Daniel. She ends the show by throwing her blood red bouquet into the crowd, which someone at the back manages to catch. "Don't worry, you won't be cursed," she assures them. "You will be happily married to someone else or yourself. It's all romance!" A truly wonderful show.