Polly Paulusma

Sometimes, what's wrong with the gig isn't what's up there on the stage. Yeah, it's unfair, but a blown speaker, a PA meltdown or a massive rain shower can ensure that even if the band's on form and the music is faultless, a concert can fall below par. It's an even bigger pity, when it all could have been avoided, if some individuals had just extended the performers some common courtesy.

Polly Paulusma is certainly capable of putting on an amazing show. Her greatest asset as a performer - aside from her stunning voice - is her music's ability to create an atmosphere that's both intimate and comfortable, which envelopes the audience like a warm blanket. Toss in her infectious good nature, and you're looking at a musician capable of winning over the hardest of cynical hearts, given half a chance.

She proved this earlier in the year, holding her steadily growing audiences enrapt, at a string of gigs in London's Bush Hall. Armed with a talented backing band, Paulusma's renditions, and in some cases, re-workings of the songs off her debut were simply breathtaking.

She probably could've proved it again at Lock 17, if some members of the audience had shut up for about five minutes. I don't know if Paulusma could hear them from the stage, but she opened with a couple of loud numbers - the swaying 'Dark Side', and the toe-tapping, upbeat 'Give It Back' rattled out of the gate, and for a while it seemed that everything was going to be okay. The problems started when she debuted a new track four songs into the set. With just a delicate piano to back her up, her bruised vocals proved no match for the cacophony at the bar, and it suddenly became apparent that we were in for a bumpy ride.

I don't know who the hell buys a ticket to an acoustic gig so they can spend the duration of it yelling into their mate's face, but Lock 17 seemed to have the cornered the market on these bozos that night. If we'd been watching a metal outfit, it wouldn't have been a problem, but Paulusma's band isn't much of a match against a constant stream of noise, unless you position yourself right in front of a speaker.

As things progressed, 'She Moves In Secret Ways' had a lot of its warmth and haunting power eaten up by the noise from the bar, the sombre beauty of 'Anywhere But Here' was pretty much demolished, and the light-hearted 'Mea Culpa' never stood a chance.

Only the loudest tracks escaped unscathed and top among these was the scorching closer, 'Some Day'. This was saved in part, because in a live setting Paulusma's taken to singing it with string quartet backing her up, which in this instance won out on volume. It also resulted in the song taking on a far more urgent tone and the strings added a sense of age to it's sentiments of bitter experience.

These are sentiments I shared leaving the venue. If I was reviewing this gig on just music alone, Paulusma would storm it, but thanks to conditions beyond her control, it wasn't on the same level as the Bush Hall concerts, hence the lousy score. So, to balance things out I'm going to take this opportunity to point out that if you want to hear what she sounds like in concert without the overtures of the moron horde, you can, by picking up a copy of her new live disc either at a gig or One Little Indian's label site.