It’s not every day you see “no crowdsurfing” signs deployed around Edinburgh’s genteel Queen’s Hall. But a sold-out visit from Kate Nash – DIY pop star, TV wrestling queen and veteran creator of millennial vignettes – is occasion enough. With an expectant audience crammed tight against the stage, there is a nervy crackle in the air.
This self-funded tour is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Nash’s platinum-selling debut Made of Bricks. That No 1 album had its release date brought forward to capitalise on her summer 2007 ubiquity, fuelled by MySpace, some smart major-label promotion and endless comparisons to Lily Allen. Nash’s firework rise seemed to chime with the immediacy of her songs, conspiratorial snapshots that, as well as being spry and melodic, had a forthrightness that was both refreshing and relatable.
The gimmick of playing a classic album in sequence has been done to death in recent years and Nash’s power move is to deliver a short but emphatic blast of Foundations – Made of Bricks’s massive lead-off single – before holding a proper rendition in reserve for the finale. Backed by an enthusiastic all-girl three-piece backing band, she leads raucous crowd singalongs through exasperated anthem Dickhead and We Get On, a song that manages to wring an impressive amount of pathos from a confessional line about watching CSI on a Saturday night.
Put it down to her recent exploits in Netflix’s bawdy wrestling comedy Glow, but there’s a rangy physicality to Nash’s turbo-charged performance, as she swoops round the stage in a dazzling sequin dress, starfishes on the floor to the delight of her band and repeatedly gets hands-on with the audience. “This is fun, isn’t it?” she beams at one point, before choreographing the biggest group shimmy of the night to the baggy groove of Pumpkin Soup.
The closest Nash comes to referencing her new acting career is bemoaning the fact that her beloved dog is home alone in LA. Instead, the focus remains on her music, both past and future. The encore includes fizzy tracks from her most recent EP and a new song, California Poppies, that sounds rather like Pink in her pomp. What could have been a tired nostalgia trip instead feels like a refocusing of energy and intent, as if Nash is gearing up to reclaim pop’s title belt.
• At Church, Leeds, 3 August. Box office: 0871 220 0260. Then touring.
