Kate Nash at Red Roaster

Kate Nash - Red Roaster, Brighton

Another young female singer/songwriter with a swelling MySpace fanbase and already garnering praise from the likes of The Guardian, is Kate Nash going to be the next big thing? On her (sold out) first headlining tour and playing at the tiny Red Roaster cafe at the bottom of St James's Street, mere minutes away from my flat, I felt it was my duty to investigate. The first thing I noticed about Kate is that she's taller and more confident than I'd expected. Taking a technical glitch in her stride she quickly abandoned her set list and improvised at her keyboard with a solo take on Little Red to open her show. With occasional backing on guitar and drums, she remained at her keyboard for the first few songs, before picking up her own guitar for a different version of her debut single Caroline's A Victim. Coming across like a slightly less-gobby version of Lily Allen, her songs are immediate, honest and extremely witty with titles like Shit Song and Dickhead suggesting her album will be a corker. Future single Foundations was uptempo and fun, but she saved the best to last with a rousing rendition of Merry Happy. Deliciously kooky, Kate Nash is definitely going to be one to watch this year.