A passionate performance yet weak songs laid poor ‘foundations’ for a memorable set : Kate Nash at Kendal Calling Review

I was surprised by my own excitement to see Kate Nash on the Kendal Calling line-up. Knowing only one song of hers (the 00’s British classic ‘Foundations’) and having some very minor familiarity with others, I would otherwise never have thought to expose myself to her music  and was looking forward to doing so in a live setting. However, while I enjoyed Nash’s energy as a performer, I was left doubtful as to whether her catalogue of music was strong enough to facilitate her performance.
Nash was undoubtedly giving it her all: it was clear she felt a genuine connection to the audience and committed to the emotion of her songs with conviction and passion with generally strong, if not sometimes breathless, vocals. This was immediately apparent with her setlist opener, ‘Mouthwash’ - one of the standouts of her discography - in which she ardently reels off all the mundane yet distinctive attributes that make her who she is. This was followed by a track from her new album, ‘Millions of Heartbreaks’, which concludes with the outro lyrics ‘I guess we have to try’ which she mirrored as she engaged with the audience asking emphatically “what else can we do, right?”.
However, it quickly became apparent that, despite Nash’s endearing enthusiasm, there was a slight hollowness to her performance due to the lack of lyrical and melodic depth to her songs. Many of her tracks have a spoken-word type quality and a ‘DIY songwriting’ sound where her lyrics, which are often blunt and odd-sounding, don’t fall neatly within the melodies or rhythmic patterns of her songs. This style worked excellently on her signature hit ‘Foundations’ with its charmingly haphazard and jaunty sound that playfully mimics a person ranting. Yet this begins to sound childlike and uninspiring when listening to more of her songs in sequence. At best, her songs are fun and off-kilter if not melodically sound but at worst they sound like a teenager's poor attempt at slam poetry.
Nash actually elevates her songs beyond what they should realistically be with her live performance, injecting them with passion and audience interaction. For example, during her song ‘D**khead’, she ventured to the barricade and asked the audience for the names of people they knew who deserved this title before throwing in her own suggestion, known transphobe J.K Rowling, adding “Go back to writing about f**king wizards!”. Nash was clearly having a great time on stage, making full use of the space, at one point joking about getting her steps in after previously performing on much smaller stages. This commitment to using the space was clear as she threw herself around on the floor during the erratic conclusion of her song ‘Mariella’ which was full of enthusiasm. I truly wanted to enter this chaotic and fun space Nash was clearly enjoying and for the most part I was able to to some degree, yet it was hard to fully get on board when the songs themselves weren't captivating.
Nash wrapped up her set with ‘Foundations’ - the song nearly everyone was waiting for - and did an excellent job of maximising the enjoyment out of the hit that everybody knew. She started the song by getting the crowd to hold out their fingertips (to hold on to the cracks in our foundations as the song’s lyrics express), held the mic to the audience as the music cut off after singing the line ‘You said I must eat so many lemons…’ so the audience could shout back ‘cause I am so bitter!’ and allowed time to slowly sing one last chorus acapella-style with the crowd at the end. By the conclusion of her crowd-pleasing one hit wonder, Nash had proved herself as a fun and eccentric performer, providing what was overall an enjoyable performance given mainly sub-par material, yet the crowd left in no doubt as to why this was her only hit.