PJ Harvey Somerset House, London WC2
Under A rich blue sky, surrounded by neoclassical architecture, PJ Harvey puts on quite a performance. In this intimate, outdoor venue, the reed-thin singer dominates the stage and audience. Somerset House might not seem like the ideal setting for her primal, bluesy rock, but Harvey almost manages to make the stone walls shake within minutes of beginning her set.
By the time she gets to her third song, a towering version of 'Big Exit', and yells: 'Look out ahead / I see danger come / I want a pistol / I want a gun', the crowd is transfixed. Although her record sales aren't what they could be and her latest album, Uh Huh Her, is a disappointing, pared-down affair, Harvey is undoubtedly a major artist. And a unique performer. Wearing a strapless, canary-yellow mini-dress, she struts and twists across the stage alternating disaffection with coquettish charm.
She concentrates on recent material, investing new songs such as 'Shame' and 'Who the Fuck' with regret and anger respectively, while an old favourite, 'Down By The Water', is devilish blues straight from the swamp. When she sings the Patti Smith-influenced 'Good Fortune', a jangly, upbeat love song, people swap their awestruck expressions for smiles.
There is a layer of irony apparent in her stage outfit and persona, not least because it is in such stark contrast to her quiet off-stage demeanour, but she is an intense performer. At times it seems as if she is contorting her body in order to extract every last bit of feeling for a song. By the end of her 90-minute set, Harvey looks exhausted, all emotions spent. The audience probably feels the same way, too.
