Olga Bell live review
There’s something of the precocious toddler giving a living-room performance to her parents at Olga Bell’s debut London headlining gig: all the energy is going in one direction, and Bell’s eagerness for approval – flamboyant dance moves thrown before a motionless crowd, and awkward ad libs (“this one’s for all the existentialists in the house!”, “we’re all pretentious hipsters!”) – occasionally borders on the desperate.
Applause that ranges from the polite to the enthusiastic follows each song, but more often than not it comes after a beat of silence that perhaps betrays the true emotional investment of the room: Bell’s latest album would be tough to recreate live with even the most bulletproof of full bands; instead, performing alone and scattered with flecks of her own unintentional self-sabotage, it falls somewhat flat.
