Expecting an audience of nerdy student types, your reviewer was – pleasantly – surprised to discover an auditorium populated by mostly grown up people (and many of them more grown up than himself) when he rolled up to the Pleasance for Jane Weaver’s gig with support from Mia La Metta.
Described as “audio/visual zoetropes” the concert is, quite frankly, dull and disappointing. Mia la Metta, who opens the show, has very little vocal talent and, although she is an amazing producer, her one-woman-band performance comes across rather like the proverbial smoking monkey – you’re astounded that the monkey can smoke but after that the entertainment value sort of fades away. Likewise with Mia La Metta, once you’ve got over being gobsmacked that one girl and a guitar can produce such a complex and multilayered soundscape you realise that her songs aren’t really all that good and you can’t make out the lyrics. (Was the chorus of her final number really “I wanna sell an erection?”)
Sadly, after an interval that’s longer than the opening set, Jane Weaver is equally disappointing. Again, she’s a highly talented producer with a hauntingly ethereal vocal range, but her songs either have no lyrics or unintelligible ones and despite the brilliant production and layering, once you’ve heard a couple they all start to sound a bit the same.
On top of this, both performers have little or no stage presence and the show has practically no production values. It’s appallingly lit; the backing visuals are fairly bland and unimpressive and, despite the promise of audio-visual zoetropes, have not been synced to the music. They just loop continuously and end up being simply irritating.
Old ravers from the 90s could listen to this on a Saturday night with a purely recreational joint once the kids have been put to bed. Maybe better that than paying good ticket money to witness sloppy staging and Weaver’s back as she twiddles with knobs on her various gizmos.