Since discovering Prass’ eponymous debut earlier this year I’m not sure a week has gone by where I haven’t found myself returning to it, being both deeply intricate and continuously rewarding. Tonight at The Haunt is Prass’ first foray into Brighton as a headline act after supporting Ryan Adams earlier this year at The Dome and, quiet rightly, its hotly anticipated.

 

Reduced to performing only as a four-piece, none of that luscious orchestration that made her debut so enticing is present tonight; many of the songs performed have to go through a significant amount of reinterpretation. ‘Violently’ looses out without the dramatic swell that builds to the songs climax, but in general the group manage to make do with what they’ve got. On record ‘It Is You’ sounds like something from a Disney soundtrack but live its transformed into a piece of smooth jazz, with shuffling, lightly played drums as Prass slowly drifts and waltzes around the stage. ‘My Baby Doesn’t Understand Me’ and ‘Never Over You’ now have a country blues twang to them, making them more rough and ready for a relatively small live venue.

 

New song ‘Jass’ feels like the most obviously upbeat and percussion focused song she’s done so far. At some points if feels almost rhythmically like it could be Afrobeat. Instead of being a limitation on Prass’ songwriting, the minimal arrangements actually open them up, offering her more flexibility in what to play.

 

Whilst Prass’ lyrics mainly deal with the pain felt in the darkest moments of relationships, her onstage persona couldn’t be further from downcast. There’s plenty of moments of light relief and crowd interaction through out the evening, Prass relaying an anecdote of the last time she was in Brighton and asking a local hairdresser to make her hair as big as possible. She seems to be genuinely smitten by the city. There’s an improvised piece of Do-wop as she adlibs around the lyrics “Hanging out in Brighton” as the other members of the band gradually join in. Unsurprisingly it gets one of the biggest reactions the whole evening from the audience. Prass even engages in a halfhearted guitar duel with her lead guitarist before the both find the idea to amusing to carry on.

 

The evening ends with a gleeful and empowered cover of the Supremes’ classic ‘Keep Me Hanging On’, with Natalie bouncing around caught up in sheer enjoyment of the moment. Natalie Prass’ songs may deal in sadness and sorrow, but its safe to say the audience tonight leaves feeling anything but.

Louis Ormesher