Alice Phoebe Lou live at Rough Trade East

On the 19th of September, South African born singer-songwriter Alice Phoebe Lou arrived to Rough Trade East to play a small intimate set in support of her newest album, Shelter.

The concert saw Alice Phoebe Lou on her own with only a guitar. She started her set on acoustic and played a few songs from the newest album, giving some background information about the songs and how they were created. Shortly after however, her tuner ran out of battery, which led to a more improvised set; this actually made the concert a lot more interesting, making the entire performance more casual and honest, and adding a playful unpredictability to the whole experience. She was always very close to the audience too, often joking in-between songs, giving this sense that she had nothing to hide to her fans. At one point even she said she couldn't take requests as she simply couldn't remember how to play them (apparently she needs to watch youtube videos of herself to refresh her memory). Around halfway through she switched from acoustic guitar to electric, and the rest of the set suddenly became much more powerful. This switch gave her an edge that I found to be missing in the acoustic half. The concert reached its highlight in the last three or four songs, with everything finally clicking into place, her voice at its rawest and most passionate in the entire concert. Around this time the fully sold out venue was at its loudest, as she then unexpectedly decided to play for ten more minutes.

In a nutshell – Alice Phoebe Lou live provides exactly what you'd expect and want as a fan, as demonstrated by the responses of the audience. It was evident every song she sang was exactly how some of her more hardcore fans were yearning for. However, I usually like it when artists embody the louder parts of their being. As such, while I enjoyed the entire show, it only really amazed me when she picked up her electric guitar and really started shouting. Of course she was also on her own, so I'm sure once she plays with the full band, and plays the acoustic songs with the entire support they need, everything will be turn out to be a lot more striking.