Independent Venue Week saw She Drew The Gun pitch up at the fabulous community venue The Crescent in York. The event was billed as an evening of poetry and song; this seemed apt, as there is undoubtedly a poetic element to She Drew The Guns’ music (check out Howl), and I was interested to see how the evening would pan out.

Louisa Roach, aka She Drew The Gun, had the stage set up for an intimate acoustic night. As she explained, the table, lamp, doily and ashtray stand were in homage to her nan’s front room, where she had done a lot of growing up. The stories of her nan and mum that were told were poignant and funny, her mum showing her the power of poetry by writing a poem to the council after being sick of waiting for repairs to be done to their council home. The poem worked, and a spark was lit. The thread of these strong influences weaves throughout Louisa’s work, which is cathartically confessional and overtly political. This played out with the first half of the set focusing more on the personal (Where I End You Begin, Mirrors, Washed in Blue) and the second half on the political (Resister, Behave Myself, Poem). Louisa summed up this split by stating, “Let’s get the love songs out of the way before we sonically dismantle capitalism.”

The songs chosen came from across the four albums to date and sounded beautifully intimate, stripped down to acoustic guitar and soft accompanying beats and rhythms. The intimacy was heightened by the storytelling, giving glimpses into the inspiration for the songs or Louisa’s life and the struggles that she grapples with. As well as chatting us through this biography, Louisa also seamlessly slipped into poetry to express herself, and so the evening flowed beautifully by on a river of words delivered in different styles. By speaking so openly of herself, she makes you think of your own experiences and place in the world in a very powerful way.

It was heartening to hear that the closing number, Poem, is being studied on the curriculum in Germany and Scotland, with Louisa running poetry and songwriting workshops in some Scottish schools. She Drew The Gun are a lightning rod to help you find a way to grow and understand the world we currently live in and the relationships we grapple with, and it was a magical privilege to spend an evening in their company.