Melanie Fiona @ The Luminaire

On Monday 6th Dec the small Kilburn venue known as The Luminaire was graced with the presence of Melanie Fiona. Melanie is a 27 year old Canadian recording artist signed to Roc Nation and most famous for her single ‘Give It To Me Right’.

The Luminaire is a venue on the Kilburn High Road and has a capacity of just under 300 people so is ideal for an intimate gig. As a venue I liked it, it had a simple small stage with a bar at the rear and a couple of small seating areas. The only problem was that there was a decent amount of space where the view was completely restricted, the show wasn’t sold out, but if there were anymore people inside then some paying customers would have definitely felt left short.

The show opened up with a performance from Nathan Watson. He performed some of his own songs as well as covers of classics by artists such as Stevie Wonder. When he first came onto the stage there couldn’t have been much more than 60 people inside but he did a great job of warming the crowd up. His set went on for over half an hour and I’m not sure if that was intentional or due to the lack of people. Either way he performed well, vocally pleasing as well as highly entertaining and by the end of his set the place had definitely filled out, with the audience feeling the vibes.

Comments have to be made about the sound quality though, through no fault of the artist, there was terrible feedback throughout Nathan’s performance, which didn’t hold to well for the Luminaires reputation. There were points when the audience were physically covering their ears and it came across as pretty unprofessional, especially when you are claiming to be the UK’s best live music venue.

Melanie graced the stage after a short interval and band change wearing a low brimmed hat hiding her beauty. Believe me when i say that this woman is truly blessed in the looks department. She was greeted with lots of applause and cheers. With it being a small venue I think that most of the fans there were fully aware of her work, the front row of the crowd were reciting the lyrics pretty much word for word and it gave the venue a great feel to it.

Vocally her performance couldn’t be criticised, entertainment wise she gave the crowd their value for money and her set went on for over an hour. There were still problems with feedback during her set and also the general quality of the sound was not very good. I’ve never been to a venue before where when there is no noise coming from the musicians you can actually hear a buzz coming from the equipment, not cool.

Ms Fiona played numerous tracks from her debut album ‘The Bridge’ as well as doing covers of Bob Marley and an excellently delivered cover of fellow Canadian, Alanis Morissette’s ‘Ironic’, which the crowd rocked out to. She had peoples hands in the air screaming like they just didn’t care. She also debuted her single for the first time in the UK from her sophomore album, ‘The MF Life’ set to be released early 2011.

The thing about Melanie Fiona is, sure she has the looks, the voice, the soulfulness, but does she stand out from the crowd? As much I rate her album it offers me nothing different to other artists I listen to, such as Alicia Keys, Jazmine Sullivan and Jenifer Hudson as examples. So in a genre that is already saturated with soulful young ladies killing the game, it’s going to be very easy for this particular lady to go unnoticed or not get the recognition. Saying that I’m still looking forward to hearing what the new album has to offer and hopefully it will give her a bit more room to stand out from the crowd.

Be sure to check Melanie out on twitter or her website here.

PEACE

-N-

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