#300: LISSIE - LIVE AT HMV MANCHESTER

    

Lissie has just released her third full length album "My Wild West", which she explained was based on her experiences of moving to live on a farm in Iowa. To celebrate, Lissie has performed a string of live shows in the UK, including this very intimate performance on the audio floor at HMV Manchester, followed by an album signing and chit chat with the fans. Considering it was a Sunday, Valentine's Day, and Liverpool were beating Aston Villa 6-0 at the time, I think the 50+ crowd was better than the store had expected. And when Lissie asked how many fans had seen her last time she was in Manchester, a large majority put their hands up, proving she has a loyal fanbase here.

Lissie turned up with just an acoustic guitar and played stripped down versions of songs from the new album. Whilst the album has extra band members, strings and top notch production, I actually think I preferred hearing these raw and simplified versions. Lissie opened her set with a powerful rendition of "Hero", with soft strumming of the acoustic guitar. As the song built up her vocals got louder and soared across the whole shop. It was "Stay" that really saw her come alive, as she really went for it, singing until she was red in the face. There was a lot of passion there and you could tell that she was really feeling these songs. The fans really buzzed off her natural warmth and talent, and she even dedicated a song to a super die hard fan Ryan who was in attendance, who had once travelled to the states to meet her! It was obvious that Lissie has a special fanbase, and performing such an up close set and chatting to them must have truly been a once in a lifetime experience for these lucky fans. Perfect Sunday afternoon vibes!


February 14th 2016 @ HMV Manchester. Photos by Rich Smith for Digital Bath.