She Makes War - Manchester The Lawn Club - 23rd June 2014

She Makes War is a one woman wrecking ball.  A heady mix of electric guitar, acoustic ukulele, loop pedals, megaphones, xylophone, cymbals and alarm clock.  It shouldn't work, but it does brilliantly.

The Lawn Club is an odd place for a gig.  Nestled in the heart of the Spinningfields commercial district, it's a haven for bankers and recruitment consultants from the nearby offices.  On a sweltering evening, it's also host to She Makes War and her unique take on what she describes as gloom-pop.

She Makes War is Laura Kidd, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.  Her seven-song set, supporting Josh Doyle covers a lot of bases musically.  It contains tracks from her two excellent studio albums to date - 2010's Disarm (Olympian, I Am and set-closer Scared To Capsize) and 2012's (Shields And Daggers and Delete) as well as two songs from her about-to-be-recorded third album (Drown Me Out and The Best), which she is about to kick off a Pledge campaign for.

The great thing about the live show is the variety.  There's straight electric guitar songs, acoustic ukulele songs, intelligent and perfectly-timed use of loop pedals for vocals, audience participation and on Delete, she throws everything into the loop mix, including an alarm clock, before strolling through the audience singing into a megaphone.  

There's so much packed into a seven-song set, including genuinely engaging explanations of the subject matter of the songs and a light-hearted piss-take of the headline act, that you can't help but fall for her charm.

She Makes War's official site can be found here and she is also on Facebook, Twitter and Bandcamp.

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