On Friday Owen and I went to Koko - my least favourite venue - to see Amanda Palmer for the second time this year. But unlike her earlier gig at the ICA this was a full 'bells & smells' show with a full supporting ensemble. I am always quietly anxious before an Amanda show - will this be the one where it doesn't work for me? I enjoyed the intimacy of her ICA showcase so much that I was a bit worried it might all get a bit lost in the cavernous Koko. Needless to worry, she was as enjoyable as ever - but I am presuming that due to her broken foot she was sitting at her keyboard on the stage proper and not on a raised dias. Fatal at this venue with it's flat floor so apart from a few lucky moments the best I saw of her was her eyes, forehead and hair.

I did, however, have the unparalleled joy of having a zombie Amanda shuffle past me in a wedding veil and her best fixed stare - well as fixed as she could be pushing through a crowd in the dark with her broken foot in a cast. She's brave I'll give her that.

She tore through most of her WHO KILLED AMANDA PALMER? album as well as some Dresden Dolls favourites. Stand-outs were a compelling "Strength Through Music" her song of a high-school gunman; "Guitar Hero" with her Australian dance troupe The Danger Ensemble joining her at the front of the stage in full air-guitar wigout; "Coin-Operated Boy" - always a pleasure as that's the song that made me fall under the Dresden's sway originally; her 21st Century torch song "I Google You" and "Half Jack" which had a concerto-style opening with cello and violin augmenting Amanda's keyboard. The show ended with her miming to Rihanna's "Umberella" with the Ensemble doing full brolly work ending with a bottle of wine being splashed over them from above - inspired lunacy.

The show ended with a showstopping version of "Leeds United" as a v-sign to her record company who have intimated to her that she looks a bit fat in her video for it! "Who do they think I am? Britany fucking Spears?" So she gave it a huge production number dancing with a line of gold sequinned chorus girls - until the Ensemble manhandled them off the stage so they could join in.
An odd thought crossed my mind watching the scantily-clad Amanda cavorting with her showgirls - what an interesting Sally Bowles she would make!