Live Review: Kate Nash at The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

Many moons ago Kate Nash was performing her sweet-sounding piano tunes to the masses and was a sure-sell for the record labels. Fast forward through the years and Nash has been let go by her label but has taken a turn for the better. Replacing her tea dress-wearing pop self with a confident, smart woman she confronts feminism, empowerment and love head on.

As the Wedgewood Rooms sinks to black, footage of Nash appears on the pink TV screens dotted around the stage. Nash pummels onto the stage with Lesley Gore’s ‘You Don’t Own Me’ playing overhead; her all black attire confirming her transformation from pop darling to punk queen.

Opening with ‘Part Heart’ the set beings with attitude and a whole lot of girl power. Sweating intensely from the start, Nash exclaims that her “eyebrows are broken” and questions what eyebrows are for if they don’t control sweat, before continuing to smash through a high-powered performance.

Abandoning her bass guitar briefly to jump into the crowd and dance freely on stage, Nash performs her latest single ‘OMYGOD!’ with a huge grin smacked across her face. Other highlights in the set included old and new favourites ‘Mariella’, ‘Sister’ and ‘Paris’.

Later in the evening, ‘Foundations’ makes an appearance, however it’s bye-bye to the previous piano-lead number and hello to the re-vamped punkier sounding version. Delivering the lyrics with the same bitterness and bite as before, ‘Foundations’ still proves to be fan-favourite.

Thanking her fans profusely for allowing her to continue as a musician despite her record label qualms, it is clear that Nash doesn’t need a major label to be successful. She’s spreading the message of female empowerment for young women (and men) through her music globally, and that in itself shows how credible she is as an artist.

A fabulous high energy performance that proved Kate Nash is more than just another female performer.

Have a listen to some new music on our iPod playlist