NATI. captured our attention in Cardiff
Photos: Rebecca Young
Words: Rhys Reviews
The headline support act for Newton Faulkner was the incredibly captivating NATI. who instantly captured the audience’s attention from the very moment they stepped onto the stage!
Photo: Rebecca Young
With her unique blend of high-energy charisma and intense, classically Scottish personality Nati not only showcased her incredible musical talents but also entertained the audience in between performances which can very easily be dead time but Nati seemed to excel in providing humorous filler between tracks. In fact, during the opening moments of her performance, Nati revealed that her loop pedal came fitted with an interesting ‘yeah!’ button that she teased throughout and led to the entire set ending with a thunderous applause as she finally pressed the button again.
The sensational, Scottish songbird opened up her set in the most fantastic way with a powerful and high-energy rendition of her original song “Heard It All Before” which instantly injected the audience with immense energy as she built up for eventual headliner Newton Faulkner later in the night. The track itself documents an experience of overcoming negative people/comments but continuing to pursue your dreams which is obviously a very important message for many people. One of my favourite things about this track however would have to be the wonderful “oohs” section which stayed in my head hours after leaving the show!
The vibe of the evening took a bit of a drastic turn as Nati musically discussed those moments from childhood that forced her to mature very quickly. She used this gig as an opportunity to promote a currently unreleased song called “Just 17” that talks about some experience that we’re probably not appropriate for her at the time but also channelled the rebellious energy throughout as she used a collection of strong language making it a song for a more mature audience.
Following this Nati took the opportunity to showcase her newest single “Joan” which tells the story of a strong/powerful woman who lives her life following the beat of her own drum. This song was interesting introduced by discovering that someone in the audience has a grandmother who is also called Joan who also takes charge in any situation they are in. One of the most prominent lyrics in this song states “if you want to take her dancing you’ll need to get in line” which suggests that the woman in question is clearly not deprived of attention. This is clearly outlines the idea that confidence itself can oftentimes be a very attractive quality (when used in a controlled manner) which can only have a positive effect on people in the audience by focusing them on feeling confident before thinking about how others feel about you which is also a very important message to share.
Throughout the show thus far Nati had been showcasing her incredible creativity via the medium of her own original songs. However, she took the moment to highlight her musical talents as she covered the iconic Alanis Morissette 1995 classic “You Ought to Know.” Not only was this a fantastic choice as it captured the angsty nature Nati had encapsulated throughout the evening but also gave her ample opportunity to show how much of a talented performer she truly is! As this was a live set with simply Nati and her guitar on stage, the pressure was purely on the performer to capture the grand and musically full style of the aforementioned Alanis but Natti did not seem fazed in the slightest as she displayed a unique skill of playing the guitar with a percussive twist which was not something (until this evening) I had seen before. On top of this blend of performance styles, Nati continued her run of incredible vocals capturing the oftentimes unattainable vocal stylings of the original Canadian singer/songwriter writer and in particular nailing the musically escalating and eventful outpour sections of the track. As this was such a well-known song, the audience was instantly captivated while singing at the top of their lungs throughout which helped to create an incredibly strong (albeit tense due to the content of the song itself) sense of community.
My favourite performance of Nati’s set this evening however came towards the closing moment of their set as they busted out yet another original song “Golden.” This number is the absolute perfect summer anthem that talks about spending time with friends in the summertime which instantly transports listeners back to those cherished memories of hangouts gone by. This uplifting song managed to wonderfully capture the sense of euphoria people feel in these moments but also highlighted an awareness that these moments cannot last forever. This is obviously a highly relatable, universal experience that most people will experience at some point in their life so seeing someone put this feeling in the spotlight was a very powerful thing to do! At one point Nati decided to split the audience into three sections with each area singing a different motif of the song which not only surprisingly sounded fantastic but also worked perfectly within the number itself. This was also another song that stayed in my head hours after leaving the show which may have been in due (in part) to becoming unofficial backing singers for Nati’s show!