Thursday 31/07/08 Marina & the Diamonds @ Catch, London

Tilly and the Wall, Florence and the Machine and now Marina and the Diamonds.  Seems like every aspiring, alternative female singer-songwriter needs a band named after an inanimate object or two to back up their slightly quaint christian name these days.  Unlike Til and Flo though, Marina appears to care far less - she plays gigs only every so often, aims to get trolleyed each time and is in entirely no hurry to sign on a record company's dotted line (despite much clamour).

Her most recent choice of venue further expresses her vaguely nihilistic nature: it's the lesbian-friendly Girlcore night upstairs in a rammed Crash, becrowded with ill-ironed lumberjack shirts, anorexic jeans and a flock of flowery blouses.  And that was just the boys.  Inelegantly bumping around with a record bag, Gigwise is jostled, jabbed and jolted by constantly-passing pretty young things - the reason being that the space between the stage and bar, as well as being an impromptu dress circle, doubles as the sole toilet throughfare.

Gigwise's regular grunts and groans are strangely suitable, however: Marina, no traditional chanteuse, utilises all kinds of odd and earthy noises herself.  Supplemented by her gay (as in cheery, not Girlcore) and tinkling keyboard, she chants, cackles, oohs, aahs, stammers and sings in varying volumes voices and styles.  Her songs, largely autobiographical as best as Gigwise can deduce, introduce a range of characters and moods from a colourful life, hence the need for such sonic schizophrenia.

While we're disrespectfully using mental illnesses as metaphors, there's something vaguely epilectic about 'Hermit the Frog', Marina's second, and most rousing number.  Starting with that bouncing keyboard and flying along frenetically while telling of a teenage trauma and cheating, it has Marina's permanent public (about 75 in total) quickly boogeying, a variety of running-on-the-spot style manoeuvres and more restrained waist-waddling.  Pints spill on plimpsols all around and even Marina's glum band - a drummer and a guitarist - dredge up the makings of a grin.