Kimya Dawson @ The Cellar 21/1/04

Another Tuesday and another helping of Oxford’s premier indie night, TrailerPark, this time in its spiritual home of every 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday at The Cellar.

Playing tonight is Kimya Dawson, one of the leading lights of the riotous, underground, extreme lo-fi New York scene known as Antifolk. Formerly front-woman of the anarchic Moldy Peaches, Kimya now ploughs a very different furrow.

Despite the large and fairly chatty crowd in tonight, the intimacy and silence Kimya is able to breed is remarkable. There is a group of 15 people sitting on the floor around her feet who are so closely watching her, that the phrase ‘rapt attention’ comes nowhere close when attempting to describe the intensity of their gazes.

Filling the gaps between songs with witty self depreciation is a practice performed by many solo singer-songwriters, infrequently to successful ends. However when done by Kimya it further captivates her already hushed audience. She correctly surmises that her ‘oafishness is part of her charm’, and with this observation she could not have put her finger better on what it is that makes her so special.

If you are into judging books by their covers then Kimya Dawson is certainly a funny case. Looking like a cross between the lion she dressed up as on stage when with The Moldy Peaches and someone you might see in the green field of Glastonbury Festival, it is fair to say that if she chose, she could cut quite an intimidating physical presence. It is when she begins her set that you realise quite how disingenuous judging her image would be. The beautiful simplicity, frailty and emotional honesty of her songs come as a welcome antidote to almost anything that could be considered mainstream.

The beauty of the Antifolk scene is in its refusal to compromise to itself and this is a trait that Kimya exemplifies perfectly. With her songs often sounding akin to a childish lullaby, it is her individualism that shines through so strongly. Although her set largely consists of merely her and a gently strummed acoustic guitar, towards the end she is joined by members of the French Antifolk group Herman Dune, who help her to a full band version of probably her best song, ‘Being Cool’ (a.k.a. ‘I’d Rather Go With Friends Than Go Alone’). The band backing is basic at best but it does bring to mind The Moldy Peaches more than anything else heard tonight.

It is this song that sums up Kimya Dawson the best, the melody is one of the most simple, yet charming you are ever likely to hear and the lyrics that talk about her happiness in her herself are disarmingly but nevertheless deeply touching. It is fitting to end this with Kimya’s own words, they inadvertently describe her greatness better than I ever could, ‘Whatever you decide, if you are true to you, you’re gonna be alright’.