Union Chapel is a magical venue, a beautiful place with a gorgeous sound system and a perfectly fitting last stop on Anna B Savage’s tour (sold out, no less!)
No one was more in awe of this than Anna herself, telling us about her first life-changing time in Union Chapel as an audience member. She also frequently sounded emotional when thanking the crowd for coming out, including a wonderful moment when she expressed her gratitude very quickly in a tumult of words so as, in her own words, ‘not to cry’.
It was one of the many magic moments in a masterful set which displayed a whole host of emotions, both through the music and the in-between chats with the audience.
Arriving on stage with her four-piece band, they opened the set with oldie but goldie ‘Corncrakes’ from the debut album ‘A Common Turn’, just Anna with her electric guitar before the full band joined in. Anna’s voice has always been very special and full of depth and emotion, and it really found its spiritual home in Union Chapel.
The set list was mostly a mixture of the gentle lush indie-folk textures, new album ‘You and I are Earth’ written after her move to Ireland, as she fell in love with her current partner and ‘In|Flux’ the previous album, where she was in a more defiantly single mood combining folk with more electronic textures.
The gentler songs from the current album, such as ‘Mo Cheol Thu’, ‘I Reach for you in my Sleep’ and ‘Lighthouse’, conveyed the awe that she felt suddenly feeling safe in a relationship for the first time, which could turn many a hardened heart into the possibility of finding hope in the future.
Special mention must be made of her band, drummer Joe Taylor, bassist Peter Darlington and Genevieve Dawson on keys and guitars, who held back for the gentler songs, as if to signify how fragile love can be whilst and rocking out with loose abandon on the more fiery numbers matching Anna herself as she threw herself around on the stage.
Opener Cubzoa also came back onstage for ‘Say My Name’ and ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ from In|Flux and flung himself into the joyous abandon, along with the rest of the band.
The show closed with The Orange’ – which Anna explained was all about self-love and platonic friendships – encouraging all the platonic friends in the audience to reach out and hold hands, whilst her band did the same on stage. Then she sent us on our way – telling us to send love out into the world, especially due to its present state. It was magical and dare I say spiritual.
Once she said she was happy to be on her own, but fortunately for all of us, a loved-up Anna is as big a joy to witness and listen to as a fiercely single Anna.
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