Review: Anna Erhard @ Dareshack

By Natalia Dewhurst, Culture Subeditor

Having enjoyed two successful shows at The Louisiana, Anna Erhard returns for the hattrick at Dareshack. With an abundance of smoke and purple hues floating amongst the amps, the stage is set for a night of punchy guitar riffs and quirky lyricism.

Opening the show is Robert Kretzschmar with a delightfully unserious and charming set. It is just him and his old acoustic guitar (he ironically urges us to buy a record so he can get a new one). His music shares the fun, storytelling quality of Erhard’s and sets the mood perfectly for the gig.

It isn’t long before he’s back onstage as Anna’s drummer. Opening with ‘Not Rick’, the band are here for a good time. The three band members are visibly close-knit and in sync as some serious jamming goes on. So much so that Anna breaks a guitar string on the first song. “Luckily, I have this shitty guitar as well”, she jokes, bringing out a spare.  

‘BMG Academy’ is a crowd pleaser. Anna sings about searching for an excuse to miss seeing the Blue Man Group while Robert creepily scratches a drum stick along a cymbal over a foreboding-sounding riff. The song builds and builds – Erhard really means it when she says she doesn’t want to see the Blue Man Group.

We are eased into a quieter moment, the rest of the band leaving for this one song. It is just Anna and her guitar performing a throwback track, ‘Family Time’. It is an intimate respite after which the band rushes back on for a highlight, ‘Teeth on the King’, when Erhard brings out the keyboard for the first and only time. The soft, distinctive piano part is beautifully accompanied by a clean, satisfying base line. Anna holds the crowd captivated with her clear, expressive voice.

Every single song has me dancing, but the highlight is ‘Hot Family’ and ‘Botanical Garden’ played back-to-back. They are the most upbeat songs from the new album, and it feels like everything has been leading up to these tracks. Or maybe that’s just because they’re my favourites. ‘Hot Family’ is refreshingly unserious. Erhard often invents funny characters as the narrators of her songs and all that expression and story-telling truly come to life live. You can tell she is having fun with it, not just singing but vocally acting.

The set ends in a crescendo of every instrument going nuts. Smoke fills the air. Drumsticks, guitar picks, and a capo fall to the floor from the stage vibrating. Robert throws a tambourine offstage, which they then have to retrieve for the encore, ‘Stash’. It’s another song displaying Erhard’s range as an artist. They play it with a distinctly country twang with an acoustic guitar and the now-retrieved tambourine. The crowd laughs as Erhard delivers the line about scoring cash outside church. The band wrap their arms around each other for a bow and it’s a perfect ending to a lively, varied set.

Have you listened to Botanical Garden yet?