Låpsley, with Morly at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (30 April 2016)

Morly (with Sam Hirschfelder)

Minnesota born and bred and now LA-based singer-songwriter Morly (aka Katy Morley) was very glad to be home. She had tweeted so, and let the audience know this, early in her forty-minute opening set, with her grandparents and several friends, present in the audience.



Following up last summer’s In Defense of My Muse EP (Cascine Records) with the just-released Something More Holy EP, she self-describes the new EP as “more lyrical, more traditional” versus her earlier work. Armed with piano and eventually guitar, Morly was joined on stage by an Australian drummer Sam Hirschfelder in a set filled with minimalist ambient and electronic beats, that rewarded the patient listener with its intricacies.

Morly

Goaded on by crowd applause, she felt obligated to tell her “Prince story,” right before she played “Something More Holy”, mentioning how terrified she felt, singing to a full house in the bigger First Avenue Mainroom next door, as part of local super group Gayngs, but was validated by a solid performance and literally almost running into Prince backstage following. She, almost a foot taller in height; smiled, which had him smile back, before disappearing into the purple mist.



She closed out her 40-min set with “If Only Chords,” from her latest EP, Something More Holy.

Låpsley

Rising producer, songwriter, singer Låpsley took the stage a little after 10pm, with a full band: Jody on bass, Mike on drums, Duncan on keys, and Tom on the soundboard. According to Låpsley, they normally have an elaborate light setup with projections programming, but unfortunately, the tiny venue could not accommodate for the extra space required… Still, what we got was a very well-lit show, thanks to the band’s superior custom light setup (compared to the 7th Street Entry’s lack of proper lighting).

Låpsley

Just to give you a little background on Låpsley, she’s fairly new to the music scene… but already the buzz is enormous. She was first discovered by winning the “One to Watch” prize at Merseyside’s GIT (Getintothis) Award in April 2014, and by June 2014 she was playing Glastonbury, thanks to BBC Introducing.



Her voice is often compared to Adele, but perhaps Låpsley is more on the electronica scale, instead of folky pop singer.



As for the show, Låpsley mentioned that she spent two full days in Minneapolis, shopping at Target, visiting the mighty Mississippi River (she’s a big yachting fan and own a boat called Theodore), and just doing touristy stuff. She became a big fan of Target, which she admitted she “visited for the first time… and they got some good s**t!”

Setlist

Highlight of Låpsley’s hour-long set (including encore), was her song “Station”, which she actually sang a duet with herself, using two microphones: one without effects and the other in a lower register, causing her to sing as if she’s a man. This was done deliberately, as she wrote on Soundcloud: “no co-vocalist, aint nobody got tym fo dat [time for that].”



Strangely enough, her setlist showed the Prince-penned song “Nothing Compares 2 U”, but ultimately was left off the live set because she was nervous about covering the song. Instead, Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” was played. While the Bush cover was fine, it would’ve been fitting and nice tribute to the recently deceased musician – and it would have been interesting to see if she followed what Sinéad O’Connor did or what The Family brought to the table… or something completely her own re-imagining of the song.



Låpsley ended her show with, undoubtedly her biggest hit song “Hurt Me” (based on fan’s reactions). Fans were singing back “So if you’re gonna hurt me / Why don’t you hurt me a little bit more? / Just dig a little deeper / Push a little harder …”



Long Way Home is Låpsley’s debut album from XL Recording. Låpsley continues her USA tour, ending May 11th at Music Hall of Williamsburg in New York.