Laura Marling with Valley Queen at the Danforth Music Hall

Photos by Neil Van

English singer-songwriter Laura Marling brought her recently released sixth album Semper Femina to the Danforth Music Hall last night.

I’m not really familiar with Marling’s material other than Semper Femina but the crowd that gathered sure made up for my ignorance. My buddy mentioned I had seen her at the Opera House a couple of years prior but I think he’s confused, because I’m sure I’d remember.

Opening with new track “Soothing” Marling displayed admirable confidence in the new album by playing most of it right from the start. Accompanied by two backup singers and a full band, Marling started off beautifully bringing Semper Femina’s songs to life in the live setting.

For a largely acoustic experience, the Music Hall’s sound held up nicely. Marling’s vocals were crystal clear and everything seemed to be mixed just right. The stage setup was simple yet elegant with arrangements of flowers adorning the stage in front of a backdrop of large banner drapes. The crowd, most impressively were respectful of the relative quiet of Marling’s folk, something not very common in a bar setting which generally descends into chatter. Aside from the odd sound of a bottle being opened there was no chatter.

Marling was quiet herself for the most part, letting her songs do the talking. She would offer a few words, but as the evening progressed she invited the crowd in. The band was given a brief break as she tackled some of her older material solo and she was riveting.

To make the swooning and swaying masses happy, Marling dove back into her catalogue touching on most of her previous albums and included a cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “For the Sake of the Song” done beautifully and the crowd roared approvingly.

For all her seriousness performing, Marling also displayed a sense of humour and admirable warmth for her band when she broke out a segment called Band Facts giving each member of her band a choice to address the crowd with an interesting fact provoking laughter or a call to action. The most endearing moment for me was before the final song of her 75 minute set when she declared that she didn’t do encores. If one was to expect one then consider the previous song the last one and “Rambling Man” the encore.