Music
Review
Cat Burns at The Roundhouse, 18/10/2024
It was a Friday to remember for the Brit-nominated star at one of her biggest shows to date
It’s been a chaotic few years for Cat Burns. A stint at BRIT School inspired a couple of self-released EPs before her fiery bedroom pop anthem ‘Go’ became a viral hit, two years after it was first released. It led to a three-month tour supporting Ed Sheeran in stadiums around Europe while Burns’ 2022 ‘Emotionally Unavailable’ EP dabbled in everything from rumbling indie rock (‘Learnt To Love Goodbyes’) and chirpy singer-songwriter confessions (‘Anxiety’) to swaggering pop (‘Ghosting’). Refusing to be boxed in, she’s since racked up collaborations with cheeky rapper ArrDee, vocal powerhouse Sam Smith and drum & bass head Goddard.
Leaning into that sense of unruly play, her 2024 debut album Early Twenties saw soulful reflections jostle up against guitar-driven venom, while pained heartbreak made room for giddy liberation. The one defiant through line across it all has been Burns’ unwavering honesty.
“Little old me at The Roundhouse, who’d have thought it,” she asks early into her biggest ever hometown show, wrapping up her biggest ever UK tour. “Not me,” she admits.
Despite the size of the crowds she now finds herself playing for – 3000 strong tonight in this historic Camden venue – Burns conjures a quiet intimacy at her gigs. She struggles to get through the delicate ‘Healing’, a tender track about grief and self-love, while the trio of ‘Happier Without You’, ‘You Don’t Love Me Anymore’ and ‘Met Someone’ creates a sweeping three-song story of loss, hope and hard-fought joy. At times, it feels like Burns is reading straight from her diary.
Still, she’s at her best when she taps into the urgent excitement of nights like this. The opening hammer of ‘Alone’ has the entire room screaming along to the cathartic rock anthem, and there’s a real sense of communal warmth to the euphoric ‘Know You’re Not Alone’. There are smirking, crowd-pleasing covers of Wheatus’ ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ and Artemas’ viral hit ‘I Like The Way You Kiss Me’ while “flirty, cheeky” new song ‘Girls’ is a shimmering pop banger. Then there’s the chirpy ‘People Pleaser’, the frantic ‘Waster Youth’ and the relatable smash of ‘Go’, which conjure an extra layer of magic to round out a night of laughter, tears, dancing and love in triumphant fashion.
