Passionate show leaves audience craving more

Published on Thursday 31 July 2008 10:48

KD Lang **** Festival Theatre EDINBURGH has been fortunate in recent months, welcoming a wealth of world-class, major performers to its stages.

Latest in that impressive list was KD Lang. Nominally a country songstress, the Canadian became queen of the Festival Theatre last night.

Before she got started though, support act Dustin O'Halloran, an exceptional pianist with a minimalist/romantic feel, opened the evening gently for her. The crowd were patient, clearly enjoying the elegance of the music, but they knew who they were there for.

Walking on to a welcoming roar, she began with Upstream, an odd but beautiful new song that seemed to cast her as a mermaid. It had an other-worldly feel as she referred often to her "human side" in the lyrics. However, as she sang, "A perfect body and a perfect smile," with arms outstretched and a cheeky grin, the audience gave her the lascivious reaction she was obviously hoping for.

A remarkable cover of Neil Young's Helpless followed, as she sang, barefoot and sporting a stunning three-piece suit, with a blue cravat. Lang rolled out a few songs from her new album, pausing only to revisit Chris Issac's Western Stars.

"Gaun yersel'" yelled a voice. After a suitable pause, Lang asked, "What did she say?" before recovering with "No, maybe I shouldn't ask".

After a particularly suggestive and even provocative introduction, she launched into the sensual Wash Me Clean. Lang seems fond of standing with open arms, as though inviting the audience to examine the naked emotions she proudly displays.

A little later, the song Smoke Rings was delivered with such erotic ambiguity as to deserve an 18 certificate. She calmed down enough to follow on with a stylish reading of crowd favourite Miss Chatelaine and a cover of Canadian Jane Sibbery's The Valley.

Her version of Hallelujah was the real jaw-dropper, though. Fellow Canuck, Leonard Cohen recently reclaimed the song for himself, but Lang's version ran dangerously close to usurping the ageing songsmith again.

Beginning with a simple piano accompaniment from Daniel Clarke, a new instrument joined in with each verse, building to a huge crescendo, courtesy of her incredible voice.

Rarely has this hymn to love been delivered with such passion or power. The audience thought so too, giving her a standing ovation that wouldn't quit. Lang gave up on trying to speak, quietly signalling the next song to begin before the cheering crowd would settle down.

The clapping got going again when they realised it was Constant Craving that had been introduced. For many, this was the breakout song from 1992's Ingnue that introduced them to Lang.

Close Your Eyes closed the main set, but that would never have satisfied this audience. Four songs over two encores later, they knew they'd had as much as they were likely to get.