Prior to going to see Nikki Lane at The Borderline on Monday, I had listened to her albums a couple of times through, but hadn’t devoted a huge amount of time to her music. I had heard good things about her overall, however, and so was excited to attend her first ever UK tour, of which London’s stop was the final date.
The support act was Jonathan Tyler, Nikki’s collaborator and also her back-up guitarist, back-up vocalist and harmonica for the night, and he serenaded the audience for around 30 minutes with his raspy, whiskey-drenched vocals and soulful Americana tunes. I enjoyed his set, particularly when one of the audience members asked him to tell us something about Texas (he’s from Dallas), and he promptly apologised for George W. Bush. An exchange developed, as the audience member added, “and Ted Cruz,” and Jonathan smiled and swore into the mic, quipping, “I’m not trying to get into politics – but fuck those guys.” Towards the end of his short set he invited Nikki herself up to the stage, for a duet on ‘To Love Is To Fly’, from his 2015 album ‘Holy Smokes’. As she took the stage, Nikki remarked “People treat us like drug addicts for being stoners over here,” which seemed to set the tone for the evening. Nikki admitted that despite her outlaw image she’s actually afraid of cops, which promoted Jonathan to say, “It’s all rock ‘n’ roll until you’re sitting in jail.”
Around 9:20pm, Nikki came to the stage for her headlining set, backed by Jonathan Tyler and Erika Wolf, who was contributing harmonies and tambourine for the evening. Decked out in a cream cowboy hat and black floral dress, Nikki certainly looked the part as her distinctive and soulful vocals led us through a plethora of songs from her first and second albums, ‘Walk of Shame’ and ‘All Or Nothing’. The audience were completely on board from the start, remaining respectfully quiet during the performances before reacting loudly and appreciatively upon their conclusion. Including a couple of new offerings (one possibly called ‘I’m Gonna Send The Sun Your Way’), she informed the crowd that she had made a new record but decided she didn’t like it, so she threw it out and made another one with Jonathan, which they had finished just before their trip to Europe. She said she figured if she had to talk about it and play it for the next two years, she’d have to like it, and she just didn’t like the record she had initially made.
This open and unfiltered approach was one she used throughout her set, something I found extremely likeable about her. She swore profusely and joked regularly, and often was giggling so much she had to postpone her sad songs until later in the set. I had expected the gig to be far more of a solemn experience, but it was an incredibly fun and rowdy affair, perhaps because Nikki and co were, in her words, “stoned as fuuuuuck.” Normally I’m not a fan of artists getting off their faces before a gig because usually it hinders their performance, but Nikki was still incredibly poised on the songs that required it, her musicianship and vocals were still excellent and her stage patter was one of the best I’ve experienced in a long time. I came out of the show laughing my head off, from the comments reminding us that there are rednecks in the UK (if the roads are anything to go by), to “I’ve been talking about easy targets, they’re typically men. They piss me off at least once a month.”
She also explained some of the stories behind her songs, including ‘700,000 Rednecks’ (inspired by when she drunkenly told someone she had 700,000 redneck fans back home in Greeneville, SC, but realised if she did have that she’d be “famous as shit”), and ‘Man Up’ (“this is what happens when you get married and it’s a bad idea – you write a divorce songs and get him the fuck out of your house”). The night got sillier as it went on, including Nikki declaring “fuck the curfew!” before later admitting their nearing the time limit was stressing her out, but she still brought it together to deliver a Merle Haggard tribute in ‘Sing Me Back Home’, and a song she wrote after watching how Levon Helm’s wife handled his slow passing from cancer.
Nikki closed her 90-minute set by inviting a couple of her friends up on stage to help sing a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’. It was a collaborative and heart-warming end to a set that was fun and heartbreaking and just full of great music. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and totally fell in love with Nikki Lane as a person – I even went as far as to tweet that we were separated at birth – and I very much look forward to seeing her again.
Originally posted here.
