About three songs in, Marika Hackman told Hackney’s St John Church that she is here for two purposes: to make the audience dance, and to make them feel miserable.
So true to form, the London-based artist’s set began with her latest album’s lead single No Caffeine, a song where she describes feeling suffocated by endless expectations and pieces of advice. It was followed up in rapid succession by the contrasting 2019 gem I’m Not Where You Are, a spiky, danceable rock song that deals in the currency of emotional unavailability.
Welcome back, Marika. You’ve been missed.
Off the back of her January album, Big Sigh, the deadpan singer-songwriter arrived in east London for the final night of her UK tour. It’s her first live outing since 2020; last time around, Hackman snuck in a London show at Kentish Town Forum right before the pandemic put a prolonged pause on live music.
While her stage banter was sometimes tinged with nerves last night, or else slightly difficult to hear, Hackman and her three piece live band showed no sign of musical rustiness as they eased between Big Sigh’s best moments, and an eclectic mix of her earlier work.
The 32-year-old has developed a signature gnarled indie-rock sound over the past decade, but has pulled off the rare feat of doing it over the course of four highly contrasting LPs, as well as one covers album.
Her 2015 debut We Slept At Last featured gorgeous and tender folk numbers Before I Sleep, Ophelia and Claude’s Girl (all present on last night’s setlist – the latter in a solo acoustic section).
But Hackman’s earthy lyrics were at that point in her career overlooked by sections of the music press who were keener to cast her as, in her words, an artist preoccupied with “running around the hillsides and singing about sunshine, flowers, and her love of the stable-boy”.
Her second and third records conquered this image with unyielding songs exploring everything from queer sex to institutional homophobia – often with a heavy helping of sarcasm and wit along the way. Her most recent release Big Sigh delves further still into heavy feelings; Hackman has called the reflective record her most emotionally challenging album so far.
And, after so long away, the pent-up energy and soul searching on offer made for a great live experience, her soaring vocal well-suited to the church settling.
There were also a couple of covers to boot. Her take on Elliott Smith’s Between the Bars proved a highlight, though her rendition of Lykke Li’s I Follow Rivers felt like the setlist’s only misstep.
Following her traditional pretend-closing song Boyfriend, Hackman joked that going through the usual routine of lying about being about to leave the stage, only to return for an encore a few minutes later, felt wrong inside the Lord’s house.
Instead, the band remained on stage for the encore. By the time they reached their actual closing song Any Human Friend, Hackman was finally ready to share a uniting message. “This is one about coming together,” she told the crowd, and off the back of a show packed with all manner of thorny feelings the sentiment felt joyful rather than cliched.
In the end, Hackman achieved only 50 per cent of her initial goal. She made us dance, sure, but fortunately nobody left feeling miserable.
