Clearly brandishing a lot of ‘tude: Nash earlier this week.Photo: Getty Images
Kate Nash, Who Is Not Lily Allen, Performs Live
“Here in New York, all the people have attitude,†Kate Nash whispered into her mike last night, casting an expectant hush over a packed Bowery Ballroom — one that was met, predictably enough, with “This is for all the people with attitude,†and the opening notes of her near-anthemic breakup ballad “Dickhead.†People keep comparing Nash to Lily Allen — presumably because they’re both cute, British, and doomed to the margins of the American pop scene — but despite a sometimes similarly ska-boppy sound, Nash does not share Allen’s cockiness. Whatever she lacked in attitude, though, she made up for in energy, howling lyrics and pounding at her keyboard, and she exuded a wry knowingness. So when some actual dickhead in the audience shouted, “Go on, you mad bitch!†you could kinda see where he was coming from. —Michael D. Ayers