Daughter

To confirm or debunk the hype surrounding a debut musical project, the ultimate litmus test is undoubtedly the stage. A live show, in fact, can lie far less than what's crafted in the studio, making it easier to tell who has the substance to keep delivering in the future and who, instead, is destined to be a flash in the pan. There was, therefore, a certain curiosity surrounding the first Italian appearance of Daughter, three dates of which this one at the radar Festival was the last. The venue is good, no-frills and appropriately intimate, though it was a bit tricky to find parking nearby, at least for those coming from out of town who don't know the surrounding road layout. Radar Festival, in its first edition, offers a top-notch lineup featuring Italian acts worth paying attention to alongside a few prestigious foreign guests, with most shows free to attend. All in all, a good start for an event we hope will stick around for years to come. Among the crowd are quite a few people who've come from other regions, a sign that the trio led by Elena Tonra is making an impression here too.

Before the headliners take the stage, local act The Sleeping Tree performs a solo set of voice and acoustic guitar. With two albums already under his belt and a third on the way, Pordenone-based Giulio Frausin showcased well-crafted songwriting with a strong dose of personality. It's not easy, in fact, to pin down a clear reference point for his compositional style, and that's a very important trait for a folk project today. If pressed, one might think of Tim Buckley, or, looking for a more contemporary and less imposing name, Terje Nordgarden could work, but, as noted, these are just loose echoes, and one certainly can't say the artist slavishly follows in their footsteps. The only issue is probably the most common one among those in Italy trying to write songs with international appeal: English pronunciation. It would be worth Frausin's while to work on this aspect, since it would greatly boost his overall credibility; even so, his compositional gifts are undeniable, at least judging by what we saw here. For those unfamiliar with him, like the writers of this piece, the urge to check out his records is now hard to resist.

We're not quite sure what to expect from the English trio: word has it they're quite shy when it comes to big stages, especially Elena Tonra. Tonight, though, conditions are different: the crowd is smaller than at their European festival appearances, but no less warm for it. What stands out most from Daughter's hour-long set is a fundamental idea. The band didn't simply take the stage and replay their songs as recorded in the studio; it was very clear that meticulous work had gone into giving the songs the right live impact without betraying their intimate, introspective nature. The trio was joined by an additional musician, who split his time between guitar and keyboard, and the four of them never let the sound drift into excessive etherealness, instead making sure it always had the right body, finding just the right variations in the arrangements each time so as not to break the delicate balance mentioned above.

It's never easy to take this kind of approach when putting together a live show, especially for a debut, knowing that any wrong choice would draw harsh criticism from every direction. Instead, every choice paid off: the show was excellently structured, alternating between songs from the recent "If You Leave" and earlier EP tracks, the balance never faltered, and ultimately Daughter proved beyond doubt to be a project built on clear ideas, with musicians who have full command of their repertoire and know how to bring out the best in it live as well.

Of course, the instrumental and vocal performance had a few rough edges here and there, in the sense that the sound, the vocals and the interplay between them could certainly be polished and refined further. But that's the inevitable price of being a young band: interpretive sensitivity is a quality that only comes with experience, and even so, the quartet held their own, their limitations clearly outweighed by the strengths just described.

At this point, it's worth discussing the band's stage demeanor, undoubtedly the most controversial aspect of the performance. The band comes across as thoroughly at ease and relaxed, and so far so good, with Tonra in particularly high spirits, unable to hold back laughter between songs. Partly it's the emotion, partly it's the urge to soak in the crowd's roaring applause, partly it's, by the frontwoman's own admission, the half a glass of wine she'd had — whatever the reason, every single time the band was getting ready to play the next song, Elena would laugh and chat, chat and laugh, with Igor, the guitarist, occasionally joining in. Now, the risk here was obviously breaking the emotional tension so central to the material, and indeed opinions among the crowd — and among the writers of this piece too — were divided: some felt that this behavior was undermining the overall impact of the set, while others defended the frontwoman in the name of a sheer continuum of authenticity, a common thread running between the torment and pain expressed in the songs and the joy shown in between them.

As mentioned, the two authors of this report don't agree on the matter either: Villa backs the first view, while Bartolotta believes there's a difference between cracking jokes about goats and other trivialities, as Josh T. Pearson does — his banter really does feel out of place — and showing, with total authenticity, what one was feeling while writing the songs, shoulder to shoulder with the mood of the moment, even though, as just explained, the two do share some common ground. Purely subjective differences of opinion that take nothing away from the English group's performance.

The crowd, in any case, was mostly enthusiastic. When it started raining right as "Winter" kicked in, nobody moved from their spot, and thankfully the rain lasted almost exactly the length of that song, like a bit of natural staging. During "Youth", on the other hand, the crowd broke into a collective singalong, a very tender moment and one perfectly suited to the song's drama, with Elena visibly moved to the point that her voice literally caught for a couple of lines. These were the highlights, along with a hugely impactful "Candles". The band hadn't planned an encore, but there was too strong a desire to reward such a devoted crowd, so the three of them came back onstage to close the night with a cover of "Get Lucky".

It was a night that managed to strike a deeply personal chord with everyone there, in just the way everybody was probably hoping for. We'll see in the coming months how much Daughter manage to grow, but either way, the test was passed with flying colors, at least here.

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