Gig review: The Anchoress at Hebden Bridge Trades Club

Despite the threat of Covid receding, the Welsh artist has been very open about her clinical vulnerability and the need to perform with air purifiers providing a barrier between her and a sold-out Hebden Bridge Trades Club.

The album that until this point had not been heard in the public arena, The Art of Losing, is similarly a very open, raw and honest work. Orchestral at times, melodic pop rock at others, hauntingly beautiful and ethereal throughout, Davies assembled a band that more than did the recorded version justice.

The spoken elements of the set saw Davies opening up deep parts of her soul, no more so than the introduction to 5AM and its almost cathartic exploration of sexual abuse she herself had suffered.

Either side of that mid-point were primarily tracks from the award-winning album, peppered with songs from her debut, a couple of covers thrown in for good measure and the confidence to unveil a new track, Damsels, as the penultimate track.

The Anchoress has a much bigger venue lined up in later this month, the Southbank Queen Elizabeth Hall, and its tenfold size increase from the Trades. There can be no fear of Davies’ vocals being able to fill such a hall, it is bold, strong and intense, fluctuating between the pop rock New Order cover Bizarre Love Triangle, the angst ridden piano led Let It Hurt or more industrial, ‘kind of hip hop’ Human Reciprocator.

The set has a John Grant feel to it, equally content with ballads as it is electronic rapped lyrics, all with a melancholic splendour running through its veins.

There are many highlights. Unravel nearly didn’t make it onto the album, being a ‘petulant toddler that wouldn’t put their socks on’ for many months, before revealing itself as a truly mature and sophisticated track.

Set closer The Exchange was originally recorded with Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield, just one of several big-name collaborators clamouring to be associated with Davies.

There was no encore, her work completed until later this year when an acoustic version of the tour comes back to Yorkshire, the anticipation for which should be palpable.