AFP @ Heaven

Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra (plus special guests) at the box that is Heaven. The special guests were Neil Gaiman, Tim Minchin, Tom Robinson (yes, Mr TRB himself) with support bands Bitter Ruin and The Jane Austen Experience, a great violin player whose name I missed (sorry) and SuperKate doing belly dancing and aerobics. Plus a horn section that she hasn't rehearsed with. Yes, that sounds like an Amanda Fucking Palmer gig to me.

It's well over a year since I last saw Amanda play live - the Evelyn Evelyn show at Bush Hall in April 2010 was the last time - so I've been looking forward to this gig for a while. Heaven is an odd venue for a gig but at least it has a high stage so, unless you're very unlucky, you will see the star of the show. Of course, it's also a club so that meant the gig started early so it could be finished and emptied before the place re-opened as a club for the Friday night club crowd. Even so, we had 2:20 hours from Miss Palmer and what a great time it was.

Amanda has a game going with fans to crowd-source her clothes for live shows and tonight's theme was "sparkly" so she (and the band) wore sparkly clothes donated by kind fans. It wasn't the best ensemble I've seen her wearing but that adds to the surprise.

She played a good, crowd-pleasing selection from The Dresden Dolls and her solo works, from 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer', 'UkeleleHead' and 'Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under' as well as some covers including a great version of Simple Minds' 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'. She included 'The Problem With Saints' from her 8ini8 project with Neil Gaiman on vocals.

It was great to hear Amanda with a band behind her again. It makes her sound so much bigger and, although the drummer wasn't Brian, he still sounded good, filling in the gaps in her piano playing and keeping the rhythm going with the extra addition of guitars. Amanda announced that she was also using a synth on her new songs, so her sound is evolving. And evolving in a great way. She played four new songs that aren't finished yet and they all sounded great, upbeat and dancey, particularly 'Lost Wallet' and 'Massachusetts Avenue'.

It was also nice to see Amanda step out from behind her keyboards to stand centre-stage and command the place with her presence. She sang a few songs up-front with others playing keyboards, such as the dramatic 'Delilah' with the bloke from Bitter Ruin playing the keyboards and the girl singing opposite Amanda, both of them pulling dramatic poses. There's nothing wrong with singing out front Amanda, you should do it more often.

I think this is possibly the best gig I've seen Amanda play (the jury's still out). She had nothing to sell other than her own awesomeness (as she joked) so she had a freer hand in deciding the set list than normal and strolled through her back catalogue to pick songs that kept us all focused on her. 'Astronaut', 'Guitar Hero' and 'Runs in the Family' from WKAP, 'Idioteque' from 'UkeleleHead', 'Missed Me', 'Delilah' and 'Girl Anachronism' from The Dresden Dolls, 'Map of Tasmania' and the great 'In My Mind' from 'Down Under'. A lovely surprise was segueing from 'Oasis' into 'Twist and Shout' and back again. Oh, lots of songs! I had a silly smile on my face for most of the gig.

The appearance of Neil Gaiman (aka Mr Amanda Palmer) is becoming standard but it was nice to hear him sing. Tim Minchin came on in the encore to sing one of his songs and then vanish. Tom Robinson came on to play with Amanda and her band, firstly singing 'Glad To Be Gay' and then a new song about bankers. The applause was hesitant when he first came on - clearly, most of the audience was a bit young to know who he was - but they soon got with the chorus in 'Glad To Be Gay', which was great fun (new verses, same chorus).

The final song of the encore was 'Leeds United' during which the crowd went mad - it's one of my favourite songs as well and I wished I could join in the pogoing around me but that would've been foolish. I was delighted when Amanda played 'Map of Tasmania' and 'In My Mind' since there was no hint of the Australian record in the set so far, and it was lovely to hear 'Astronaut' with drums . The only thing that kept it from being perfect was no 'Ampersand'.

If you get the chance to see Amanda Palmer then do so - you won't regret it!