Bat for Lashes at HOB Delta Room

 Rawk Shows   

Bat for Lashes is Indie Blogger Nation’s latest crush and I had to see for myself since I didn’t think the album was spectacular. Armed with a photo pass that their publicist hooked me up with, I braved a truly weird HOB crowd (Keyshia Cole was playing in the music hall), and wandered into the Delta Room. I hadn’t been there for a show yet. It’s really intimate and nice (carpeted floors, a few couches to lounge on.) Very glad that I ventured out, because Bat for Lashes put on an incredible show for the 75 enraptured fans in attendance.

Bat for Lashes is a British band led by Natasha Khan. She sings and plays keyboards, plus the random percussion and even bass (badly, she said) for some songs. The rest of the band (Lizzy Carey, Caroline Weeks, and Abi Fry) alternate at the other instruments needed for their unique sound - including violins.

The first song “Pearl’s Dream” featured Natasha on the xylophone. Pretty cool, I’d say. Then they ventured into two strong songs - “Trophy” and “Tahiti”. At that point, I knew I was in for a good show. It got even better on “Horse and I” when Natasha switched to keyboards. As you can tell by these next two photos, Natasha is a captivating presence on stage. You just can’t stop staring at her.

The band played a great set, hitting all the material on their debut, along with a Tom Waits cover ("Lonely"). They also played a new song called “Missing Time”.  This is the song that Natasha played bass on, where she laughed and said that she played bass badly. I don’t think anyone agreed with her.

When they played “Sarah”, Natasha was hitting this stick on the wood panel you see on the floor. Very creative percussion for sure.

After “Sarah”, the band stayed on stage and Natasha thanked us for being an attentive crowd. She also told us that they had been touring for two weeks now and that the sound in this room was the best that they had yet. After the set ending “Prescilla”, Natasha and the band mingled in the crowd a bit, taking photos and talking to fans. A very good impression left on the crowd.

Here’s the official set list (this is the one that Natasha used during the show.)

P.S. When you get a photo pass at HOB, they make you sign a release that you only take photos for the first three songs. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible by not using my flash and staying a little far back. I dutifully put my camera away after three songs, but then people who had snuck cameras in and cell phone cams started taking photos (with flashes even) so I did end up taking a few more throughout the set. I’m glad I did and for once HOB security was pretty lax, so that was nice. Check out all the photos here.