Live Review: She & Him @ Koko, 7 May 2010

To call the crowd at last week's She & Him gig at Koko in London 'fanboys' would only be wide-of-the-mark insofar that there seemed to be just as many girls looking to declare their love for lead singer (and Hollywood star) Zooey Deschanel as their were boys.

Fan-people, then. And inevitably it is possible to feel slightly alienated in such a crowd, particularly when ever second of silence is instantly filled with an offer to impregnate a member of the band, yet She & Him were both able to rise above it. Things may not have started perfectly - Deschanel spent virtually no time interacting with the audience between numbers and the nature of their catalogue means the best was bound to come towards the end, but as the duo warmed up and Zooey opened up the songs began to speak for themselves.

Interestingly the performance had several levels of performance - a full band with two backing singers, the full band without the extra singers and finally just Deschanel and M. Ward.  The differing levels helped make the event flow through what is otherwise a set of songs that are similar in styles but the gig was undoubtedly at its best when stripped back to just Ward and Deschanel with performances of 'You Really Got a Hold On Me' and the duo's cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put A Spell On You', both of which enraptured the audience - especially the latter's extremely long notes from Zooey.

A performance that veered from enjoyable to, at times, thrilling.

BP x