Live Review: Laura Marling, Marika Hackman

When entering St Michael's Church for the first time, it's hard not to gush about how beautiful it is. The room is surrounded with biblical stained glass windows and the balcony and roof are framed with white trimming. The centrepiece of this breathtaking venue is of course the giant pipe organ.

Support act, British songstress Marika Hackman, puts the acoustics of this place to good use with her sweetly smooth voice. Her songs are deeply melancholy and her face is stiff as she performs. Hackman herself jokes that she would look deranged if she smiled while singing her songs. With lyrics like “I took a knife and stabbed out the light that was in our eyes,” we understand what she means.

Two candelabras are being lit onstage and everybody takes a pew, waiting for Laura Marling to begin tonight's service. Marling is accompanied by cellist Ruth de Turberville. The pair have good comic timing as they banter in between songs about facts they know about pencils while Marling tunes her guitar. The show opens echoing the same tracklisted order as Marling's latest album Once I Was An Eagle. The first few songs are all morphed together into one long, seamless track that is strummed in an open C tuning. Marling is pitch perfect live. It sounds almost identical to the album recording, just with a few less instruments. She also pays tribute to folk greats with an astounding cover of Simon & Garfunkel's Kathy's Song and her Bob Dylan-esque single Master Hunter. 

The simple combination of voice, acoustic guitar and cello is stunning and the room is dead silent like at a tennis match. Marling's lyrics are deeply honest and suggest a maturity far beyond her 23 years of age. Listening to her sing inside a church is like hearing her personal confession. In terms of professionalism, though, the show is rough. Marling makes multiple mistakes, but just laughs and carries on. There is also a noticeable amount of tuning that Marling does all by herself after she decided 18 months ago not to tour with a stage crew.

Laura Marling has a no-encore policy, which is refreshing: when she says this is her last song, you know she means it. What you see is what you get with Laura Marling, which tonight is a beautiful songwriter and performer who is completely honest.