Considering I hadn’t heard of Ora Cogan until about 3 weeks ago, when her PR team emailed us at Picky Bs to see if we wanted to review this show, it is almost alarming how much of a fan I had become by the time I walked out of Yes Basement on Saturday evening. Her latest album, Hard-Hearted Woman, has been on rotation for me since it was sent as a link in that PR email. It hits an absolute sweet spot for my musical tastes, as folk and country influences are married with a darker, eerier sound and Ora’s haunting, versatile voice. Her songs veer between alt-folk and a kind of gothic rock, but are punctuated with psychedelic sounds and full of a dingy energy that makes her sound so captivating.
With the record firmly sitting among my favourites of the year so far, I was excited to catch her live right when I was in the middle of the discovery stage. And she didn’t disappoint. Opening with the bluesy sounding ‘The Smoke’, with a guitar line which you can’t help but tap your feet to, she pretty much had the audience under her spell from the get go. Her voice soared to a new level on stage, and as that opener washed over us it was evident that we would be in for a solid show.
‘Honey’ is, in a way, the most straightforward sounding song on the album. Given it’s the opener, it can lull you into a sense of the album that isn’t entirely accurate, setting the scene for a more traditional country-inflected LP. On stage, and following ‘The Smoke’ it set us up perfectly for a night that was going to take us on a bit of an emotional journey, with a band and singer that are capable of drawing all sorts of internal reactions out of their audience. Given I am late to the Ora Cogan show, and have been ignorant of her previous albums, it was a bonus for me that we had set off in familiar territory and that I was getting into the groove alongside the band and the rest of the crowd.
‘River Rise’ is another album standout. On stage, this was a shining example of how powerful Ora’s voice can be. Throughout this song, and the set in general, there are moments where she holds back, where her gentle tones are at the forefront, and then moments when she lets go and shows her incredible range. It’s hard not to be moved when those moments arrive.
Later in the set, we are treated to more of the best parts of Hard-Hearted Woman. ‘Outgrowing’ is mesmerising, with the slow build added to a sense of being carried along by the performance of Ora and her band. And ‘Division’, which is probably the song I would suggest listening to if you just want to get a quick sense of what Ora is about, might be the set’s peak – a hypnotic guitar line, haunting strings, and another stunning vocal performance.
What I came away with more than anything from this show, though, was a sense that I have been missing out. A set that was probably 80% Hard-Hearted Woman also delivered older tracks such as ‘Cowgirl’, ‘Katie Cruel’, and ‘Holy Hells’. While they were all new to me, they were all as moving and involving as the songs I already knew – and that, for me, is the sign of an artist who knows how to deliver a live show. As ‘Cowgirl’ finished I heard a woman in the crowd behind me turn to her friend and say ‘that was pretty much a religious experience for me.’ It’s hard to disagree with her.
Words by Fran Slater
Picky Bastards 