REVIEW: Daughter: St George's 7/10
PLAYING St George's only two days after the entire Acoustic Music Festival was cancelled, London three-piece Daughter managed to fill the historic hall even with the snow starting to fall outside.
After the first of many guitar tunings, the band went straight into Shallows from their debut album If You Leave, with the sound levels unfortunately drowning out the vocals of Elena Tonra.
By the time they got to the second song, Landfill, Tonra had picked up energy and was a captivating stage presence, only to be stopped by guitarist Igor Haefeli because she was out of tune.
The snowy weather had played havoc with the instruments, which resulted in the band and the sound staff playing musical guitars. But not to worry as among repeated half-sung songs and giggly banter, the band's youth and quality was evident.
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Daughter started out as Tonsa on her own and expanded into a trio with Haefeli on guitar and Remi Aguilella on drums. Maybe the expansion was too hasty.
With a sound reminiscent of Bat for Lashes and Kyla La Grange, the power dynamics of the group don't add anything to the music. And some musical effects seemed to make no sense: the violin bow used for Love and new song Life Forms may have been dramatic but it once again drowned out the delicate vocals.
The end turned into some mishmash of noise more reminiscent of a metal band but the strong vocals were back for Home with a touch of Florence and the Machine and a big sense of the spirit of Laura Marling. Tonra's delicate lilting voice, which occasionally boomed out while singing older songs Youth and Candles and then faded again, provided a hint of how this new band find themselves recipients of such impressive help on their album.
With a first self-released demo EP only out in 2010, they have since had production help from Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Adele) and Jolyon Vaughan Thomas (Maps).
Daughter were impressive in their own way last night; they will be even better next time.
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