Embodying a community spirit and being a welcome escape from Freshers Week madness, Ali Glen reviews the impeccable folk-rock show from Grace Petrie at The Y Theatre in Leicester earlier this week.
As a freshman in Nottingham, the decision to travel half an hour away from the city for a gig could’ve been construed as a brave one. However, being familiar with Grace Petrie’s music and having seen and enjoyed a number of her folk-rock counterparts in concert, I made the trip out to Leicester to escape the whirlwind of Freshers week for a few hours.
The premise of the gig was somewhat unconventional, in that it was primarily a music video shoot for upcoming single We’ve Got An Office in Hackney. Within the song, Petrie, a proudly independent artist, quotes verbatim phrases used to describe her by higher ups in the music industry who have largely ignored her throughout her career. Whilst said higher ups may have been wrong to disregard her, they definitely got one thing right: Petrie is fiercely authentic. It is evident in the near-constant repartee that she engages the audience in throughout the night, ensuring that they successfully fulfil their role in the video, despite having to hear the song repeated several times. It is a slightly strange spectacle to be a part of, but Petrie successfully manages to navigate any self-consciousness in the room with her charisma.
Of course, it does help that this is a crowd of no more than 100 Grace Petrie devotees. Once the cameras have been put away, and all that remains is Petrie and her guitar, she takes requests from the audience, and at one point is prompted on the lyrics to I Wish the Guardian Believed That I Exist by various audience members (a song that she herself confesses “isn’t played very often”).
The whole theatre participates as Grace explores her back catalogue, and responds with an impressive lack of prompting to the call and response sections in They Shall Not Pass and Coldwaterproofjacket. There is palpable excitement at the inclusion of the as yet unreleased No Woman Wants to be a Muse, and the euphoric cry of “You never will surrender to a narrow view of gender” echoes around the building during trans rights anthem Black Tie, arguably Petrie’s most well-known song.
''She has created a real community spirit at her shows, where nobody is unafraid to chat with one another despite never having met''
Even as two strings of Grace’s guitar break during closer Northbound, the audience is able to help her with some of the more difficult parts of the song that are made impossible by the technical difficulties, and are unfazed throughout the final portion of the song, potentially even finishing stronger than they started.
In many ways, artists such as Grace Petrie embody much of what’s good about live music, and why it has been so sorely missed throughout the pandemic. She has created a real community spirit at her shows, where nobody is unafraid to chat with one another despite never having met. Indeed, Petrie herself coming out to the bar after the show to converse and take pictures with everybody communicates her ethos perfectly. It is nights such as these that remind me of the importance of live music as an escape, and make me evermore grateful for its return.
Written by: Ali Glen
Edited by: Amrit Virdi
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