By Henry Groves
Heading to the end of her UK tour, Laura Misch had come to Brighton to play a sold-out Komedia Studio. Originally down to play Concorde 2, the new choice of venue was a lot more intimate, and seeing her in such a small venue was something that is unlikely to happen any time soon.
As the background music faded, Misch’s saxophone started playing almost instantly, before she had even stepped foot into the venue. She then proceeded to walk into the room and onto the stage, playing ‘Sax Rise’. She was joined on stage by Marysia Osu on the harp and Tomas Kaspar who played guitar and electronics. These were three incredibly talented musicians who you could see were in awe of each other. The chemistry between the band was evident and they all spent most of the time playing to each other. The mixture of saxophone and singing by Misch was incredible and showed off her development as an artist.
Misch also connected with the crowd, got them laughing at times, and in complete silence at others. The stories she told about how each song was written, and the ideas she came up with made it feel like you could also relate to the songs.
Misch was on tour showing off her latest album ‘Sample the Sky’ with her setlist containing 8 of the 10 songs from the album. You could tell each song she played meant something to her, from important reasons like her song ‘Portals’ which was written about her Grandad, who she was a carer for in his last few months, to ‘Glass Shards’ which she wrote about a glass sculpture that she loved. Her setlist was expertly crafted, with a distinct mix of slower songs, including ‘Widening Circles’ which she described as a lullaby, and got the crowd to sit on the floor for, too much more upbeat songs to get the crowd dancing. I don’t think I have ever been asked to sit down for a song in a music venue before, but it was a truly surreal and mesmerising moment. I was sceptical at first, but it was a truly beautiful moment, and the crowd remained sitting for the next song as well, and then Misch urged the crowd to get back up to dance for ‘Hide to Seek’.
She finished with an encore of ‘Lagoon’ and ‘Climb’ before exiting the stage, and the crowd left the venue into the cold winter night after what was a truly beautiful and spiritual evening.
