With sea themes flowing strongly through all of her solo work, Concorde 2 was the perfect venue for an evening with Lisa Hannigan. First coming to the public attention through her work with Damien Rice, her most recent album, At Swim, has shown that she is a major artist in her own right and perhaps ready to eclipse her former collaborator. Playing against wall-to-wall televised Glastonbury coverage is always tough, and her support act John Smith deserved a bigger crowd for his support set. Having caught his sold-out Komedia show recently, I was already familiar with his soulful voice and self-effacing style but found a more confident Smith on stage this evening. Singing with smokey shades of Ray LaMontagne, the new songs sound fantastic and laid the groundwork for an exciting album release this week. With much of the album written while he lived in town, there is an obvious affinity and connection with Brighton and he once again had the crowd lapping up every moment. Even motorbikes racing down Madeira Drive during his version of ‘Coming Home’ (a song he co-wrote with Gabrielle Aplin and Lisa Hannigan) couldn’t disrupt another winning show and anticipation remains high for the album.

By the time Lisa Hannigan took to the stage with her band, which includes Smith on guitar and backing vocals, the crowd numbers had grown and she was met with a fervent reaction. Her performance on the opening track ‘Ora’ is sensational, her voice seeming to come from another world while her words summon up images of being adrift at sea as the lights slowly came up. Gently repeating “Won’t you come with me?”, the scene is set and we were completely in her hands for the following 70 minutes. Hannigan is a fascinating musician to watch and very quickly she’s completely lost in her own world, alternating between instruments after each song. During ‘Tender’, you could feel every inch of emotion as she sang, swinging her hair from side to side, which was followed by a simply stunning ‘Barton’. Beautifully backlit, the song begins in near-silence before building into something completely different with an ambient electronic beat. It’s been easy to overlook how good the rest of the group are at this point, but they add a real force and energy throughout before leaving the stage to Hannigan as we are taken through two gorgeous acoustic solo songs from 2011’s Passenger. As the band return, John Smith comes back to the fore as he duets during ‘We, The Drowned’ and replaces LaMontagne himself on an exquisite version of ‘O Sleep’. Their voices sound perfect as the vocals wrap around together, and there is a hushed reverence from the crowd by the end.

As we near the close of the set, the atmosphere inside Concorde is electric and it becomes what Hannigan described as “one of those magical, unforgettable moments that Brighton always gives you” when the crowd encourage and persuade her to finish a song after two false starts. The foot-stomping shanty of ‘Knots’ finishes the main set with mass dancing breaking out amongst the crowd, before the band file off for a brief pause. As the encore begins, there is a beautiful a capella version of ‘Anahorish’ before the whole band join for the final two songs. As the show finishes and we are forced to leave the world that she creates over the evening, at least upon exiting the venue we can still hear the sea calling to us as it has throughout so much of her work tonight. This was an enchanting evening with a supremely talented musician, one that deserved to be seen by many more people. But, perhaps, it made it all the more special for those of us who were lucky enough to be there.
Jamie MacMillan