Glad to be able to greet the crowd in English after spending time touring mainland Europe to promote "There She Goes," Sixpence None the Richer treated a sizeable crowd in one of London's higher profile venues to proof that despite a busy year touring "Kiss Me," there's more to them than a couple of sing-along radio hits.

After a support act, the New Electrics (a local act not to be confused with the Scotland-based folk act), who were a little too brash and relied too heavily on unnecessary tracks to win over this correspondent, Sixpence took to the stage to the sounds of "Love, Salvation and the Fear of Death." While the sound in the venue was good, if a little loud from my vantage point in front of the sound desk, the band was in lively form. 

The evening saw Sixpence making their way through material from all three of their studio albums, including two tracks from their debut which went down very well. Leigh Nash introduced "Field of Flowers" as a song most of the crowd probably weren't familiar with, but by the looks of things she was wrong. The three new songs went down well, "Stronger" will be a fine radio single, while the slightly longer "Paralyzed" sees the band experimenting with new lyrical approaches (it tells of a journalist killed in Kosovo). The addition of a violin to the dense sound of the song made this one of the standouts of the evening.

While the two hit singles "Kiss Me" and "There She Goes" received good receptions, they thankfully didn't dwarf the rest of the material when it came to crowd response. The singles took on a new life in the live setting, almost making up for the overplay on the radio that the former is beginning to suffer from. A few tracks sounded a little thin, but the addition of a violin playing triplet on many of the pieces from Sixpence None the Richer was an excellent overall effect. 

Those who have begun to dismiss Sixpence None the Richer as teeny-pop stars are obviously not familiar with the breadth and depth of their material.  While their live show is still evolving, it is one of the strong tools in their growing arsenal. The new material suggested promising possibilities for the next album (work starts early next year) and the band doesn't seem to have suffered too much from a strenuous twelve months. 

As well as writing for the Phantom Tollbooth, James Stewart runs a website for Sixpence None the Richer in the UK. The site can be found at: http://www.britlinks.co.uk/sixpence/