Review: Katie Noonan performs Jeff Buckley’s Grace at Astor Theatre
Katie Noonan: Jeff Buckley’s Grace Tour at Astor Theatre
w/ Jack Carthy
Wednesday, September 18, 2025
There is no denying Katie Noonan’s sheer talent and expertise in the realm of singing and performance. The singer-songwriter has been producing acclaimed music since the 90s, with her passion shining through on collaborations and covers of some of her favourite musicians.
Touring the country with their rendition of Jeff Buckley’s classic album Grace, Noonan performed at the Astor Theatre with a five-piece band, featuring two guitarists, a bassist, a violinist and a drummer.
Katie Noonan emerged on stage in a silver sequinned number and chic blonde mohawk. Her presence itself exuded theatre. Opening with the gorgeous Mojo Pin, Noonan and the band held their composure during some slight feedback issues, which were swiftly rectified.
The title track Grace followed, and one couldn’t help but think, whilst Noonan’s voice is stunning, that the song was somewhat stripped of the anguish and depth that Buckley instilled in his songs. It was clear that Katie wasn’t attempting to be Jeff Buckley; rather, she was bringing her own energy and breathing new breath into the sensational album.
Noonan especially excelled when performing the songs that Buckley had also covered during his prolific musical and mortal existence. She did justice to the great Nina Simone’s Lilac Wine as well as dearly departed Leonard Cohen’s hymnal Hallelujah. The over half a millennium old song Corpus Christi Carol, originally made famous by Benjamin Britten, was exceptionally fitted to Noonan’s operatic style. Noonan told the crowd that she was ‘in deep’ covering Jeff Buckley, as women don’t typically have falsetto in their vocal range, and Buckley had an eight-octave range.
After the subdued and jazzy Lilac Wine, Noonan and her band amped up the energy with So Real. The vocals and instruments balanced well together on the more rock-style track.
Noonan is seemingly effortless in her performances, yet the more refined and pared-back style lacked the heartache and angst that Buckley infused in his songs. Noonan’s theatre sensibility is perhaps what fans come to see and hear, though fans of Buckley who hadn’t heard much of Noonan’s music may have felt the show needed more gravitas.
She jumped on the electric organ for Lover, You Should’ve Come Over. The violin added the melancholy that didn’t quite come through in Noonan’s uplifting vocals. Eternal Life was the most heavy song of the performance, and Noonan “juzzed” her quiff as if getting herself into a more rock and roll persona, while the band’s drummer was really showcased during the song. The Grace performance ended with Dream Brother, a song that suited Noonan’s style beautifully.
Even if a classically trained performer in sequins backed by a quintet isn’t for all fans of the enigmatic Jeff Buckley, you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due, if not just for Noonan’s stunning vocals, then for her ability to take on a challenging and almost untouchable album, and make it her own.
KYRA SHENNAN
Photos by Linda Dunjey
