Little May At Bush Hall, London

Little May by Ruth Geraghty

London – Little May has performed one-off shows in the UK previously but tonight’s London show was part of the Australian trio’s first UK headline tour. The good news for the band who number Annie Hamilton, Liz Drummond and Hannah Field augmented by touring band mates, Mark Harding (keyboard/synth) and drummer Cat Hunter, was that a sizeable crowd had built up at London’s ornate Bush Hall. Following respectable support sets by fellow Aussie, Gordi and her band and the unusually -monikered British act CuckooLander, the patient gathering finally gave a politely warm welcome to Little May just as the clock passed 21:45.

Majoring on tracks from its forthcoming album, For The Company, the Sydney-based outfit opened proceedings with one of the strongest songs from the record, “Home”, with Hannah Field pitched centre stage on lead vocal. Although the song lost the delicacy of its recorded counterpart and Field’s soft drawl became a touch nasal, there was no denying its sorrowful beauty. The chorus line “I don’t think we’ll ever know ‘til we get home” though wasn’t going to be taken literally by a generous-spirited audience. When Liz Drummond took over the vocal lead on “Sinks”, her more fragile tone was a little swamped by the bass synth and drums; again the sound mix was compensated to some degree by the atmospheric builds and interesting rhythms employed in the song.

Drummond stepped up again to take the lead on “Hide” with her compatriots adding beautifully close harmonies. The song got a good response and you sensed that the band began to relax a little more. So much so that Field chatted a bit more in introducing the next song, the Icehouse cover “Great Southern Land”, with a name check for the Aussie radio station Triple J to cheers from ex-pats in the audience. The treatment had a Fleetwood Mac feel to it with warm opening synth chords and busy drums leading to a quiet unexpected ending.

“Sold” was then initiated with a confession that the band had messed it up the previous night. It has a particularly challenging arrangement and again the vocals could have done with more definition against the drums and bass keyboard. The odd harmony went off key. There is no disputing that the trio can sing and equally blend together really well so I wondered if the occasional issue was down to stage monitoring. The usually reliable Bush Hall sound mix wasn’t quite on form tonight which scarcely aided Little May’s cause.

Little May by Ruth Geraghty

Whatever the reason, “Sold” marked something of a watershed as things truly picked up for the remainder of the set. “The Shine Is Brighter At Night” especially stood out both vocally and instrumentally. The new album’s producer, The National’s Aaron Dessner, helped rearrange the song and his mark was evident in its subtle rises and falls.

The pace was kept up with “Oh My My” featuring a ‘Not Fade Away’ style riff with hypnotic harmonies overlaid while “Dust” showed Little May’s imaginative approach to songwriting; its delicate opening giving way to an insistent bass drum beat and a short quirky bridge leading back into the verse. Some of the band’s musical ideas could have benefited from a bit more room to expand in the live context. There is certainly space for them to grow and fan favourite “Boardwalks” provided a fitting closer and testimony to Little May’s core skills. Annie Hamilton, excellent throughout, provided a lovely filigree guitar opening along with harmonies to support Field’s lead and Drummond’s second vocal. As the song gathered pace you felt they might all have been listening to Mumfords too. The lyric “We are not afraid of what’s to be when this road has just begun” seemed really appropriate to the evening.  Little May has so much going for it and you sense that the band will really grow on this tour and be much better for these experiences – good and bad – by the end of it. I would love to see them again.

Photo by Ruth Geraghty for BestNewBands.com

See our Sarah Hess’ recent interview with the band and our earlier review of their Bonnaroo set.

Little May’s ‘For The Company’ tour continues with European dates (13-18 October) and US shows (20 Oct – 3 Nov). Details on the website.

Set list:
Home
Seven Hours
Sinks
Bow and Arrow
Hide
Great Southern Land (Icehouse cover)
Sold
The Shine Is Brighter At Night
Oh My My
Dust
Remind Me

Encore:
Boardwalks

Tony Hardy

Tony Hardy

Tony Hardy lives in Kingston upon Thames, just south-west of London, England. His background is in sales and marketing, and today combines brand marketing with copywriting and music interests in his own business called Fifty3.

Tony’s great passion in life is music and nothing gives him more pleasure than unearthing good, original new music and championing independent musicians. His association with Best New Bands brings great opportunities for this. He also writes for Consequence of Sound and is a judge for Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition.
Tony Hardy