PJ Harvey
London Royal Festival Hall
29th September, 2007

View: rear of balcony

PJ Harvey chose to promote the release of the excellent new White Chalk with a short tour of solo shows. She took the stage clothed in the white dress from its sleeve and the sell-out crowd witnessed her play a variety of electric and acoustic guitars, piano (festooned with a row of lightbulbs), autoharp, harmonica, keyboards, plus occasional cymbals and drum machine. While you sometimes yearned for a fuller band sound, it was good to see her superb guitar playing to the fore on Man-Size and the bluesy set opener, To Bring You My Love. She turned to piano for several new songs from the new album, while Angelene featured guitar and drum machine, which segued into a disturbing, intense My Beautiful Leah, where Polly attacked a cymbal with relish. The drum machine malfunctioned mid-set leading to improvised percussive accompaniment to a sparse Electric Light. It was great to hear B-sides such as Nina In Ecstasy alongside crowd-pleasing renditions of Rid Of Me and Down By The Water. A superbly intimate set, the only complaint being its 75 minutes.

Reviewed by Chris Knight
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