 | | Joan As Police Woman |
In fairness to the Police Woman, half the problem tonight was the venue. Sweating in the aftermath of the first truly sunny day of the year, Club Academy wasn’t far off a living hell, and the stupidly low stage meant that the majority of the crowd spent the gig watching the top of the drum kit, bobbing around the pillars in a desperate attempt to catch a glimpse of Joan. But bad as the venue was, it wasn’t the main issue. One listen to her Real Life album shows just what a talented songwriter Wasser is, but the beauty of the songs comes as much from the rich textures and harmonies as it does from the melodies, textures provided by unique voices like Joseph Arthur and Antony Hegarty. Live, it’s almost impossible to recreate those textures and there’s an argument for dropping any of those tunes that require harmonies from her set, especially if drummer Ben Perowsky’s mauling of I Defy is anything to go by. But then what would she sing? It’s a tough one to answer. There’s no question that that voice is a belter, as gutsy renditions of Eternal Flame and Christobel showed - the latter also coming with the explanation that "it’s not about Chris De Burgh". Yet, it wasn’t until she closed the encore with a punked-up throwabout little gem called Endless Supply Of Poison that any real semblance of the fire, passion and charisma of Wasser came through. Sadly, at just over a minute long, it was gone before there was a chance to enjoy it. There’s little doubt that had the audience been sat around the tables of Matt and Phred’s (or better still, the ones at The Bitter End in Wasser’s native New York), her set would have made so much more sense. As it was, this was a case of the wrong performer in the wrong venue. | 
