EMA‘s album is full of multi stranded witch-ghostly voices, agonised and heart rending. Which causes a tiny bit of cognitive dissonance when at tonight’s gig, she is exceedingly perky and, dare I say it, chipper. She almost bounced on to the small stage, all smiles, asking that standard question “How are you Manchester?” and then to comment how, actually, she likes Manchester. This causes someone to ask “you say it like you’re surprised?”. This isn’t her intention at all, but just goes to show how difficult it can be to get past the barrier of common language when you’re Erika M. Anderson (hence EMA), from South Dakota via Oakland California and you’re on stage at Manchester’s Deaf Institute trying to connect with a northern British audience. She’s all charm though and leads off into a compelling set culled almost entirely from her 2011 debut LP ‘Past Life Martyred Saints’. She proves that she can pull it off, be in the EMA role demanded by droning and trance-inducing songs such as ‘On The Grey Ship’, and be chatty Erika in between.
In point of fact, putting the musical elements together live and in front of us, another element emerges, which she herself accurately describes simply as heavy, and that’s a good word for it. Heavy and loud enough to be breaking strings and needing running guitar repairs early in the set. This might reveal some imbalance, as her vocals stayed semi-hidden in the mix, making you want to nip over to mixing desk and give them a boost.
To reveal a bit of reviewer bias, the album has been one of my ‘go-to’ records of the last few months and tonight’s performance more than does it justice. A highlight is something I haven’t heard before, their cover of the Violent Femmes’ ‘Add It Up’, followed by her own ‘Butterfly Knife’, those twenty kissed blade-cuts feeling raw enough that I found myself staring hard for the evidence at EMA’s own forearms, which she herself was scratching and pawing as she sang. From here on in, the sense of drama was on maximum gain, EMA at one point hunched semi-prone on the floor over her Gibson, at another playing it with her teeth. California’, her Ginsberg-meets-Patti moment, was always promising to be the big one in the set, and she saved the best till last. It was minimalist, the only instruments being the drums and two violins, and built through its sad and dystopian view of American life to its slow and shuddering climax. No encore, which was somehow perfect, just the houselights coming up, while the band hid in the stairwell that passes for a dressing room, until they could be cajoled out to sign merch and happily chat with the audience. It was that sort of dichotic night, dream-like tales of grandma carrying a gun being spoken by perfectly nice and normal people.
Set List – Marked / On The Grey Ship / Breakfast / Milkman / Add It Up / Butterfly Knife / Hey / Anteroom / Red Star / California
