Bat For Lashes @ Kulturkirche, Köln

I went to see Bat For Lashes play last night at the Kulturkirche in Cologne. The show was fantastic and I thought the location was pretty great too. It's a small, old church and the sound was pretty cool.

The show started with opener Marybell Katastrophy, the solo project from Marie Holjund of the Tiger Tunes.

I think they did ok but it was not my cup of tea. I did enjoy the performance though.

When MK finished, the stage was cleared and set up for B4L. Self decorated with angel figures with colorful shining wings, candles, chains of lights, a funny looking lamp and other weird stuff you could find at a garage sale, gave the stage an intimate and dreamy atmosphere.
Bat For Lashes a.k.a. Natasha Khan with live band Ben Christophers, Charlotte Hatherley and Sarah Jones entered the stage and started the show with "Glass" and "Sleep Alone", the first two tracks of B4L new album "Two Suns".
For the next song "Horse and I" live band member Charlotte Hatherley joined Natasha on the keyboard and playing other various instruments. I was able to capture a pretty decent video of this fantastic moment.

I'm still wondering what kind of an instrument it was that Charlotte used at 1:15.
The band used a lot of interesting instruments and especially Charlotte and Ben switched a lot between songs. But Natasha did too, when she wasn't singing and dancing she played the keyboard, auto harp and guitar, as well as tambourine and bells.
The music was great, the band knew what they were doing and it sounded amazing. Especially the great drumming of Sarah Jones stood out as well as her joined background vocals with the amazing Charlotte Hatherley.
But the best aspect of the show was definitely Natasha Khan's amazingly beautiful voice. Her vocal range is fantastic and she did not miss a tune.

picture by subtle_sarcasm

After finishing their main set they came out for two more encores. The first song of the encore was a stripped down version of "Prescilla" with Natasha alone on stage singing and playing auto harp. "Good Love", "Moon & Moon" and "Two Planets" completed the encore.
When they came out a second time the whole crowd was excited because they hadn't played their big hit "Daniel" yet. And that's what came. A powerful "Daniel" was the end of the ~70min set and Natasha and band left the stage waving and smiling.
I managed to get a set list and we waited outside for a while but they didn't come out, Natasha had said earlier that her mother was in attendance, so we figured they were busy and left.


It was a really fantastic concert and hearing Natasha sing her songs live added another dimension to it. I highly recommend her latest album "Two Suns" and to see her live if you get the chance.
Here she is with "Daniel" on Letterman: