Kate Nash at Roundhouse

Irish-English musician Kate Nash regularly says her thanks during her headline show tonight. “I’ve been through some sh*t, you know what I mean?” she explains. It’s true; she’s battled dodgy management, misogynistic journalism and label troubles throughout her career. She doesn’t dwell on this for long, though (“I’ll save it for my next lecture”), and continues with the barnstorming performance she’s given all night long.

If you’re only familiar with Nash’s early hit Foundations, which was seemingly everywhere in the mid-to-late 2000s, you’re in for a delight this evening, as she wears her heart on her sleeve and effortlessly shows what she’s capable of. Wearing a witchy outfit, her band – tonight including a string section – open the set huddled around Nash on the floor as she sings Lullaby for an Insomniac at barely a whisper; the Roundhouse is silent. One by one, the band disperses and picks up their instruments, as the song swells before heading into Millions of Heartbeats.

This set is undoubtedly a rollercoaster, yet Nash handles each transition with ease: one moment she softly sings the bittersweet romance of I Hate Seagulls, and the next she radiates pure rage and fury during Sister. GERM, a spoken-word piece described by Nash as a “feminist and trans ally anthem”, takes this up a notch, starting with intense lighting and pounding drums and building from there. In an era when diversity and half-hearted advocacy are often treated as mere box-ticking exercises, she demonstrates how to use your voice when others can’t.

In this vein, Nash’s next single is a cover of Sinead O’Connor’s Famine, and she invites some friends (one carrying a harp, another a bodhrán) to join in tonight’s rendition; suddenly, it’s like we’re watching an intimate folk evening in the back of a pub, and Nash ends the track with a stunning tin whistle solo. The whole set displays the power of music, but this moment here also demonstrates its magic.

Nash announces the “home stretch”, and the venue is treated to a medley of early hits, with Skeleton Song, Paris, Later On and Mariella all neatly compacted into one musical treat. Then, those familiar piano chords play, and the room screams in delight before bellowing along to Foundations’ opening line: “Thursday night, everything’s fine…”

Waiting for the encore, a sure indicator of how well the night is going, can be heard in how loudly the room is asking for one more song – in this case, the volume in here might be reverberating down to the Northern line below. Sure enough, Nash complies with the cheeky Americana of Birds, and a chaotic closer of Merry Happy with confetti cannons, arm-waving and her keyboard being key-mashed to the floor. And with that, Kate Nash grins from ear to ear as she hugs her band and takes a bow with them as Nothing Compares 2 U plays them out.

In the words of Kate Nash herself: “Thank you for coming – it really means a lot to me and all my haters.” When the show is this much fun, it’s undeniably a pleasure.