STATES OF DESIRE Queen's Theatre Until 14 Mar 2012 Review by Jamie Wright It was warm enough already in the Queen’s Theatre, but when Jennifer DeGrassi and her smooth four-piece backing band (The Lyndon Gray Quartette – double bass, drums, keyboards and woodwind) got going, things really heated up. With a powerful voice and an impressive range, DeGrassi and the band perform excellent jazzy, cabaret versions of songs including those of Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Janis Joplin – and with a truly stunning version of Nine Inch Nails’ epic ‘Hurt’, though this version owes more to the Johnny Cash cover than the original. An excellent bellydancer performs while the musicians take a (brief) well-deserved break between sets. There’s a very loose narrative concept, though this is only referred to sporadically; while it could have been given more prominence, it still might have been forgotten in the wake of the great performances by DeGrassi and the exceptional quartet. Rating 4 stars (out of 5)