Concert: LoneLady (Grand Social)

Join me in a journey back to February for what was my first proper gig post-lockdown: you know, a gig where you stand up and buy drinks from a bar and people dance a bit and stuff. But unfortunately I found that I had largely forgotten how to do gigs properly, crucially failing to recall that you really don't want to be bringing too much clothes along with you. It's better to be a bit chilly while walking to the venue than stuck with a mountain of stuff at it, particularly as it turned out that either the Grand Social was not operating a cloakroom or else had decided to carefully hide it away where none might find it.

LoneLady you will recall is the edgy electronic retro dance music sensation from Manchester whom I discovered via Tim Burgess and his listening parties (notably the one for her brilliant 2021 album Former Things). But before her there was a local support act: a chap called Chósta, who turns out to be from the picturesque locality of Donabate, which is the next place along on the train from where I grew up but somewhere I have never really explored properly, making it a zone of mystery and danger (accentuated by it being adjacent to an enormous but now largely derelict Victorian asylum). Mr Chósta was one of those laptop guys, so I was expecting him to be a bit boring, but actually his set was very enjoyable in a low key glitchy electronic kind of way. Consider checking out his material on Bandcamp: https://chosta.bandcamp.com

Although her records are all her own work, LoneLady (real name Julie Campbell) was playing with two other people: James Field, who bashed away at electronic drum pads while standing up, and Kendra Jane Frost, who played electronic keyboards and other instruments. The performance was great but I think maybe the other attendees were a bit like me and so were trying to remember how to do gigs. Audience responses seemed a bit muted, only really ramping up by the concert's latter stages. By the time members of Dublin's LoneLady fan community had remembered how to enjoy themselves it was time for LoneLady and her friends to bid us farewell. Still, it was great hearing the edgy electronic tunes from Former Things live, together with the tracks from her earlier albums, at the time still new to me. I hope that Ms LoneLady returns to these shores now that we have all remembered how to do concerts.

LoneLady's music can be found in record stores and on Bandcamp: https://lonelady.bandcamp.com

More concert photographs: https://www.flickr.com/photos/inuitmonster/albums/72177720298580159