Kate Nash, Glasgow review: 'turns anger into fun'

Kate Nash may not have a big touring budget but she threw herself into this Glasgow show, writes Fiona Shepherd
Kate Nash Kate Nash
Kate Nash | David Hepburn

Kate Nash, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

“My bum's gone viral!” announced Kate Nash with some alacrity. Such is the cost-of-touring crisis that this onetime Brit Award-winning musician has been reduced to hawking her behind on an OnlyFans page set up the night before she commenced her Butts For Tour Buses Tour in Glasgow.

This is Nash’s typically irreverent two-fingers response to the latest confirmation that Spotify bosses are raking it in while artists earn a pittance from streaming on the site.

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Nash turns anger into fun. Her songs are imbued with rage, sadness, sometimes rapture, all wrapped up in tuneful accessibility. She may not have a big touring budget but she threw herself into a performance ranging from pure glitzy pop to punky melange, with spiky interjections from her righteous band.

This animated girl gang moved in ever more gleefully shouty directions on Mouthwash, then snapped at heels on the curt, chippy, infernally catchy Death Proof which accelerated straight into the jabbering All Talk before dropping into low-slung seduction in the vein of Pixies/Breeders frontwoman Kim Deal.

Nash switched to acoustic guitar for a couple of whimsical but witty list songs, I Hate Seagulls and Nicest Thing, the latter embellished with plangent electric guitar. She plumbed lyrical depths with a cutesy delivery on Ray and unleashed Wasteman, her dance pop paean to “a shit boyfriend”, both from new album 9 Sad Symphonies, which has been something a reset for Nash. Inevitably though, the phones were out for two of her oldest indie minstrel gems, Foundations and Birds.

Purchasing a pic of her posterior online is one way to raise vital funds to keep the show on the road. For those who have contributed to selling out this gig, Nash also recommended a more conventional visit to the merchandise stall to peruse her range of t-shirts, Christmas jumpers and shot glasses. A toast to Kate!

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