Kate Nash @ Terminal 5 in NY- November 19th, 2010

This was my sixth time seeing Kate Nash perform live, and I am so amazed at how much she has transformed herself artistically since shyly singing charming little melodies in front of an audience of no more than 300 people at Amoeba Records in January of 2008, her first show in Los Angeles. She’s gone from a loveable young artist to an absolute force of nature and true role model for what every girl in her teens and 20’s should be like, speaking her mind through both poetry and song and not really giving a shit if people don’t agree. Mid-way through her show, following her most controversial new number “Mansion Song” (which you must hear for yourself to fully appreciate), she playfully asked the crowd, “Are you afraid of a girl with an opinion?”, to which she responded after a few seconds of cheering: “Yeah… me neither.”

Kate has come quite a way from her earliest days of sitting in her room post- rejection from college tinkering with GarageBand and writing ditties like “Foundations” and “Skeleton Song”… not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy those songs still. Dressed in a sequenced blue leotard and tights, and sitting down at her fabulous light bulb-adorned keyboard in the middle of the stage, I could immediately tell that her level of comfort and confidence in front of a crowd had dramatically changed in the past few years; before, she used to come out smiling at her audience but clearly trying to stifle her nerves with a few deep breaths before gingerly placing her hands on the keys. The Kate I saw a few weeks ago, however, came out as strong as ever, taking complete control of her stage and soaking up the attention as she opened her set with the rambunctious, scream-laden “I Just Love You More.” The New York crowd immediately fed off of her energy, dancing and throwing their hands up as she sang numbers like “Take Me To A Higher Plane”, “Later On”, and “Kiss That Grrl”. Of her new material, I was most excited to hear her play “Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt’, a long-time favorite of mine, “Do-Wah-Doo”, and “Paris”. The show was a delightful mix of old and new, as she also sang songs like “Merry Happy”, “Pumpkin Soup”, and my quintessential high school songs “Birds” and “Mouthwash”… in fact, with very few exceptions I don’t think she skipped any of the songs I wanted to hear from either album. The highlight of the show, however, was her performance of the song “Model Behaviour”, a song I completely had forgotten about that had me crying from laughing so hard... take heed of Kate’s advice from the lyrics of this song, everyone: “You don’t have to suck dick to succeed”.

I don’t want to be that girl and pretend like I can relate to her on any deeply personal level, but I mean it when I say that I am quite proud of her and the message she is sending to her fans; she has always been a role model of mine and has proven herself to be an even bigger inspiration for me, both in terms of performance/ song-writing and in her general outlook on life. She cares about things that matter and wants people to believe that there is more to life than caring about petty things that don’t really matter, and I for one wish there were more people like her taking a stand and speaking their opinions. I’m sure most people have heard her most famous songs, and I doubt I am talking about her as a new artist in any way, but if you haven’t listened to the songs I have mentioned above or any of 2010’s My Best Friend Is You, it’s definitely worth it.