There are some odd contradictions at work here: firstly that despite the famously opulent and showy aesthetic of Bat for Lashes, Natasha Khan is looking very low-key and almost seems, well, shy; and secondly that such an intimate performance should be delivered in such a cavernous and stark space as the Great Hall of Cardiff University’s Student Union. Touring in support of her second album, Two Suns, Natasha Khan has drafted in a new live band including Ben Christophers, Charlotte Hatherley and the incredibly impressive drummer Sarah Jones of New Young Pony Club, who all work very hard adding an assortment of vocals,percussion and other instruments, periodically appearing amongst the sweeping smoke-machine fog and rich blues and mauves of the lighting. The performance is tight and beguiling, mostly drawing on newer material, with minimal acknowledgement that there is an audience (at one point a Valleys-accented heckler yells out ‘you’ve done it again, Natasha’, a confused-looking Khan says back ‘what’s that? I can come again?’ before moving swiftly on), very good when it seems like a straightforward pop concert during, for example during ‘Daniel’, ‘Pearl’s Dream’ and ‘What’s A Girl To Do’, but even better when the arrangement and Khan’s sweeping vocals draw you in at the quieter points, from opener ‘Glass’ to the first song of the opener, ‘The Big Sleep’, performed as a duet with alter-ego Pearl, a blonde wigged Khan on a TV screen wheeled onto the stage.
